Congress govt in Rajasthan has lost its sheen: survey

It’s raining bad news for the Congress. This time it comes from desert state Rajasthan. It won 20 seats out of the 25 in the state in 2009, strengthening the party’s position at the Centre. If the elections were held right now, it would lose six to ten seats. And this may not have much to do with the resurgent popularity of the BJP. According to a survey conducted by Delhi-based CSDS for CNN-IBN and The Hindu, the Congress would win between 10 and 14 seats if there were an election at this point. The BJP would also be in the same range. However, it is a significant gain for the latter as it won only five seats in the elections of 2009. The survey had a sample base of 1,691.[caption id=“attachment_986947” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] Gehlot’s government has lost some of its sheen since 2009. While 29 of the respondents rated Gehlot’s government as good, 35 percent rated Vasundhara Raje’s better. The caste factor is built into this numerical equation. Forty-three percent of the Jats say the BJP government was better than the present one (23) percent. Thirty-eight percent of the Gujjars believe Raje’s government was better - it is 21 percent in case of the Gehlot-led Congress government. However, BJP does not find much favour among Muslims and the Scheduled Caste population. As many as 42 percent of the Muslim respondents favoured the Congress government in the state compared to 28 percent support for the BJP’s government earlier. The SC respondents favoured Gehlot (35) more than Raje (26). The BJP took out the Suraj Sankalp Yatra to boost its prospects in the state. As a knee-jerk response, the Congress took out the Sandesh Yatra across Rajasthan. However, more respondents (68 percent) seem to have heard of the BJP’s roadshow than that of the Congress’ (61 percent). The Awareness of Vasundhara’s yatra slightly more than awareness about Gehlot’s yatra.