Cong forms alliance with BAP in Banswara, expels candidates
JAIPUR: The Congress in Rajasthan on Monday announced an alliance with the Bharatiya Adivasi Party (BAP) for the Banswara-Dungarpur Lok Sabha seat and Bagidora assembly seat even as the party expelled two of its candidates from the respective seats as they didn’t withdraw their forms despite the party announcing the alliance.
On the last day of the withdrawal of nominations on Monday, the Congress expelled Arvind Damor, who was fielded from the Banswara-Dungarpur Lok Sabha seat, and Kapoor Singh, the party candidate from Bagidora assembly seat, “as they didn’t withdraw their forms despite the party announcing the alliance for six years,” party insiders familiar with the matter said. The Bagidora seat had became vacant after former Congress MLA Mahendrajeeet Singh Malviya joined BJP. He is contesting as the BJP candidate from Banswara-Dungarpur seat.
However, despite the expulsion, Damor will remain the Congress candidate as the party has already given the election symbol to him. Damor couldn’t be contacted for his remarks on the issue. The tribal-dominated seat will witness a triangular contest with BAP’s Rajkumar Roat, BJP’s Malviya, and Damor in the fray.
A senior Congress leader familiar with the development said: “The Congress had decided to field Arjun Bamnia as its candidate on the last day of filing nominations for this seat, while Damor had filed his nomination as a dummy candidate on April 4. Bamania did not file his nomination on time; hence Congress gave its election symbol to Damor. During this time, discussions were going on about the alliance between Congress and BAP. After the decision on this was taken on Monday morning, Congress announced the alliance, but then Damor did not withdraw his name.”
He said “the alliance with BAP was always on the cards”, along with Nagaur and Sikar, which have been shared with RLP and CPI(M). “But got delayed due to resistance by local leaders, who were claiming that this would affect the presence of the Congress
in the region,” said the leader. The BAP had won three assembly seats in the 2023 polls in Banswara and Dungarpur districts.
The leader quoted above said: “The focus is to ensure that BJP doesn’t win the seat, or else Malviya, who had been in Congress for ages, will break the party’s vote base. Besides, the BAP candidate is strong and winnable, looking to which there is no point in dividing the votes.”
Even before the Congress announced its candidate, BAP candidate Roat took to X and said, ‘If Congress leaves Banswara-Dungarpur seat for an alliance supporting the BAP, then we and all the residents here will be grateful to the Congress high command and will defeat the BJP.’
The BAP traces its roots back to the Bharatiya Tribal Party floated by Chhotubhai Vasava in Gujarat in 2017. BTP MLAs Roat and Ramprasad Dindor broke ties with the BTP and floated BAP in September 2023. The BAP won three seats in the assembly polls.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, there was a triangular contest between Congress, BJP, and BTP on Banswara-Dungarpur Lok Sabha seat . BJP’s Kanakamal Katara had won the seat with over 3,00,000 votes.
Reacting to the development, Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara said: “The alliance with the BAP on BanswaraDungarpur Lok Sabha seat, and Bagidora assembly seat was done to protect democracy.” “We will support the BAP candidates on both seats,” he said. On local leaders’ claim that this will weaken Congress in the region, he said, “the Congress will further strengthen, and BJP will be ousted.”
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Laxmikant Bharadwaj said, “What worse can be expected from the Congress than their own candidates running away from the fray? In the Banswara seat, they went for an alliance after announcing the party candidate, who refused to withdraw. There cannot be a bigger example of weak leadership than this.” He said that looking at the situation in Rajasthan, it seems that the Congress “isn’t fighting the election but is trying to minimize the loss margin.”
Political analyst Manish Godha said that the alliance should have been announced on time, but due to differences in opinion with the local leaders, it was stuck. “Now, with the party candidate going rogue and not withdrawing the nomination, the Congress is in a tough spot. However, it will not affect the prospects of the BAP and the Congress, as the face in the fray (Damor) is new.”