Is Congress on its way out from Rajasthan? The party is now trying to take refuge in advertorials to sway the masses, who seem to have already made up their mind to vote for the BJP.
Congress image in Rajasthan has taken a big beating in recent times. The state ranks highest in the country when it comes to atrocities on Dalits tribals and women. The grand old party – Congress – has a history of protecting and patronising people with criminal backgrounds and that has been amply reflected in the distribution of party tickets during assembly elections in Rajasthan.
Whether it was 2013, 2018 or even the present-day assembly elections in Rajasthan, Congress has fielded candidates with criminal backgrounds.
In the ongoing Rajasthan assembly elections (2023), As many as 24 per cent of Congress candidates have criminal cases on them. In other words, 47 of its candidates have criminal backgrounds and have declared criminal cases against them, which they have mentioned in their affidavits.
This was revealed in the latest joint report of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW). Interestingly the report also reveals that 167 (84 per cent) of Congress candidates have declared their assets to be more than one crore.
In 2013, twenty-eight (14 per cent) of 199 candidates fielded by the Indian National Congress had declared criminal cases against them. Congress in Rajasthan then gave tickets to relatives of several politicians, accused of criminal activities. These prominently included Mahipal Madherna, Malkhan Singh Bishnoi and Babulal Nagar. Madherna was associated with the infamous Bhanwari Devi case. It is to be remembered that Bhanwari Devi was allegedly killed at the behest of Mahipal Madherna after a sex CD showing Mahipal Madherna and Bhanwari Devi had surfaced.
This is when Congress is now taking refuge of advertorials. A front-page advertorial today (Nov 20) in Rajasthan Patrika placed at the masthead, says “Rajasthan Mey Congress Keey Lahaar”. A prominent Hindi daily Rajasthan Patrika has a large readership in Rajasthan and Congress now wants to mislead the voters. The party has always used media to suit its own vested interests.
Advertorials are a sort of paid editorial content. In other words, what is published is not part of the content of the newspapers but of the person paying for that content. Election Commission in recent times has been very strict with these advertorials as often they are misleading. For a reader, it at times becomes very difficult to distinguish between an advertisement and editorial content.
Generally, newspapers avoid publishing advertorials. Probably, Congress leadership in Rajasthan prevailed upon the concerned media group to publish such advertisements.
Significantly, Congress is already a divided house in Rajasthan. The political war between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and tall Gujar leader Sachin Pilot is well known. Sachin Pilot has been eyeing the chief ministership for long. Son of late Congress Stalwart Rajesh Pilot, Sachin, commands a good following amongst the youth and his fellow caste men.
In the aftermath of the 2018 assembly elections success, Congress favoured Gehlot over Pilot for chief ministership despite the latter’s immense popularity. Despite public show of unity time and again, the scar in the relationship between the two is evidently seen time and again.
There is no denial to the fact that Congress is on its way out of Rajasthan. It certainly can use every possible trick in the trade but destiny is doomed for the party.
