Jaipur, Nov 23: With stakes for both the parties very high, Rajasthan is witnessing the fiercest-ever battle of ballots in which the BJP has fielded a woman leader Vasundhara Raje in the attempt to wrest power from Congress on the plank of a variety of local issues like reservation. Several political parties, including Bahujan Samaj Party, Indian National Lok Dal, Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party, have pitchforked themselves into battle after all efforts to forge a third front against Congress and BJP fizzled out.
The two major claimants of power are also seriously dogged by rebels which is evident from the number of rebels expelled from both the parties for contesting against official nominees.
While Congress has expelled its 70 rebels in the fray in a many constituencies, BJP has shown gate to its 53 rebels challenging against its official nominees.
Local issues are dominating the campaign as the electorate seems to have little interest in national or state issues even as the poll campaigners of political parties are trying to rake them up, reports from various parts reaching here say.
But the reservation issue seems unlikely to be a major factor in the elections. Bureau Report