As the electoral battle reaches its climax, politics in Rajasthan is as volatile as the swirling sands in a desert region. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are locked in a titanic tussle across the state but there’s a special focus on the swing districts of the Eastern Zone which have often played the role of kingmakers in the revolving door history of the past three decades.
East Rajasthan is the region that shot to national fame 15 years ago over the Gujjar agitation for ST quotas, easily the most aggressive campaign the desert state has seen in decades. It's the area that helped the Congress return to power in 2018 and where a contentious canal, the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP), built to serve the water needs of 13 districts is now a central plank of the Congress campaign.
Of the 83 Assembly seats in this region, the Congress won 49, while the BJP got 25 seats in the 2018 polls when it could not win a single seat in four East Rajasthan districts.