Gehlot melts into the desert sands of Rajasthan

The 'desert fox' melted away into the sand, while the Maharani established her reign in this magical land set amidst a desolate desert.

Ashok Gehlot, called the desert fox of Rajasthan led in opinion polls but bit the dust when the verdict came out yesterday.

Vasundhara Raje would be the first woman chief minister in this so-called "male dominated" Rajasthan.

Raje and her guide, BJP general secretary, Pramod Mahajan have also made history by getting 120 seats as against 56 of the Congress.

Earlier, the BJP had never been able to touch the figure of 100. In 1993 it achieved its best ever score of 95 seats. During the last assembly polls, it managed to bag only 33 seats with Congress getting a two-third majority by winning 153 of the 200 assembly seats in the state.

From Haduti to Mewar, from Marwar to Shekhawati, four regions in Rajasthan, the saffron juggernaut rolled, capturing the traditional Congress vote bank of the OBCs and Jats.

The Congress gamble of repeating most of its sitting MLAs spelt disaster for the party. Its the sitting MLAs anti-incumbency factor, which wreaked havoc for Gehlot, sources said.

The issue, on the surface was development, rather the "BSP factor" (Bijli-Sadak-Paani or Electricity, Roads, Water), but it was the "jat-factor", which turned the tables on Gehlot.

The chief minister, Gehlot, however won from his Sardarpura constituency by defeating BJP's Mahendra Jhabak by 18,991 votes. Similarly, Raje demolished Congress' Rama Pilot by winning from Jhalrapatan constituency by over 9,000 votes.

That the saffron influence was rapidly spreading in the state, became somewhat evident, when the party won all the three by-elections, particularly in the Sagwara Parliamentary constituency. This particular had never been won by the BJP.

With the elections approaching, the BJP brass pitched in for Raje as its chief ministerial candidate. Apart from being non-controversial, Raje had three additional advantages.

Through her marriage to Dholpur royal scion, she represented the Jats (jat bahu). By coming from the royal family of Gwalior, she represented the Rajputs.

The third factor - being a woman - was a huge draw. This time of the 68 per cent who participated in the Rajasthan elections, the number of women was overwhelming.

The BJP's main target as chalked out by Mahajan was the Jat vote, which comprises 18 per cent of Rajasthan population. The Jats were also the deciding factors in over 50 seats.

When Congress returned to power in 1998 with the total support of the Jats, the community expected the then CLP leader, Parasaram Madrena to be the first Jat chief minister.

The Jats seethed, when Madrana lost out to OBC Gehlot and in 1999 Lok Sabha polls, the community translated its anger into votes by voting for the BJP.