With the crucial 2023 Rajasthan assembly polls inching closer, Amit Shah is taking the battle to the Congress on CM Ashok Gehlot‘s home turf, Jodhpur.With an eye on next year’s assembly elections in Rajasthan, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is in the Congress-ruled state to muster the BJP rank and file and get them into poll mode.
Significantly, Shah is taking the battle to the Congress on the home turf of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot — Jodhpur. He is slated to address the valedictory session of the BJP OBC Morcha working committee, followed by a mahabooth meeting which will be attended by over 25,000 booth workers.
ON AMIT SHAH’S AGENDA
Amit Shah landed in Jaisalmer on Friday evening for a two-day visit to Rajasthan. He was received at the Air Force station by Union Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary.
The Home Minister interacted with BSF officials at the south sector headquarters in Dabla (Jaisalmer) and spent the night at the BSF Officers’ Institute.
On Saturday morning, Shah will visit Tanot Mata temple and offer prayers. He will also lay the foundation stone of border tourism development work at Tanot premises at 11 am
Thereafter, he will depart for Jodhpur. Shah will be accorded a grand welcome and over 1,500 party workers in saffron turbans on motorcycles will escort him to the venue of the meeting from the airport in the form of a rally, party officials said.
He will first address the valedictory session of the party’s OBC Morcha at a hotel. This will be followed by a public meeting with BJP’s booth-level workers at Jodhpur’s Dussehra Ground. The party is mobilising its booth-level workers from the entire division for the meeting.
BJP WORKING THE NUMBERS
Jodhpur is considered as the heartland of the Marwar region of Rajasthan and is the hometown of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
With Shah addressing the OBC Morcha, the BJP is aiming bolster the party’s OBC vote bank in the state ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections. OBCs make up 52 per cent of Rajasthan’s population; of this, 11 percent are Jats. The community has impact across 150 seats of the state. As of now, there are 55 OBC MLAs in Rajasthan of whom 43 are Jats.
Moreover, of the 200 Assembly constituencies in the desert state, 33 are in Jodhpur division, including 10 in Jodhpur district. Of these, the BJP currently holds 14 seats, the Congress 17, while the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party and Independents hold one seat each.
