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Explained: Why PM Modi Said That Congress Leaders Are Appealing To Not Vote For Congress In Rajasthan's Banswara
Nishtha Anushree
Apr 24, 2024, 04:21 PM | Updated 04:20 PM IST
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In an election rally in Rajasthan's Banswara, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on 21 April, "Congress leaders are doing door-to-door campaign appealing to people to not vote for Congress."
"We used to hear their earlier appeals to not vote for BJP. But here, the whole Congress party is asking to not vote for Congress," Modi added alleging that Congress' royal family in Delhi also does not vote for Congress.
PM Modi's claims are actually true for Banswara because the Congress here is in alliance with the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) and their joint candidate is Rajkumar Roat, founder of BAP.
However, Congress had earlier announced Arvind Damor as its candidate for the Banswara-Dungarpur Lok Sabha constituency before stitching an alliance with the BAP.
Damor then refused to withdraw his nomination, making it a tripolar fight giving an edge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate as the Congress votes will be divided.
The overt Congress campaign is for Roat, instead of Damor. However, Damor claims that some Congress leaders who do not accept the alliance with the BAP are supporting him.
BJP has been winning this constituency since 2014. However, it had different candidates in 2014 and 2019. Continuing this trend, the BJP dropped the incumbent MP to field Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya.
Roat is currently an MLA from Chorasi, an Assembly segment under the Banswara-Dungarpur seat. His party had won three seats in the 2023 Assembly elections.
The Banswara-Dungarpur constituency is reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates and the Congress here is indeed campaigning to not vote for its own candidate. The voting will be held on 26 April in second phase.
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Nishtha Anushree is Senior Sub-editor at Swarajya. She tweets at @nishthaanushree.
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