Rajasthan leaders play 'influencers' in Punjab politics

By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Jan 11 (IANS) It is an interesting fact that Rajasthan leaders are playing influencers in Punjab, UP and Uttarakhand politics with most of the veterans from the BJP and the Congress camping in the northern states to ensure victory for their party.

Recently, the saffron party was successful in bringing in a mayor and deputy in the Chandigarh municipal polls at a time when the AAP had garnered a majority.

With this development, all eyes are again on the likely new equations in Punjab with Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, an MP from Rajasthan, leading the show from the front in Punjab.

Shekhawat has won the trust of the party high command after he defeated Vaibhav Gehlot, son of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, in Jodhpur in the parliamentary polls on what has been the home turf of Ashok Gehlot for four decades.

Now the high command has delegated the responsibility of the Punjab polls to him.

At the same time, the Congress has given the same responsibility to its trusted player Harish Chowdhary in Punjab.

So it won't be wrong to say that its Shekhawat Vs Chowdhary in Punjab and they are both Rajasthan leaders.

Also, the Congress has delegated the responsibility of the chairman of the screening committee in Punjab to Ajay Maken, the in-charge of the Rajasthan Congress. That is, ticket distribution in Punjab will also be in the hands of leaders associated with Rajasthan.

Moreover, the new DGP who has assumed charge in Punjab after the removal of DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyay over the breach in the PM's security is also from Rajasthan.

Viresh Kumar Bhawra has been given the command of the police in Punjab. Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, after long deliberation with the UPSC panel, has put his stamp on the appointment of the 1987 batch IPS officer VK Bhawra as DGP.

It is not only Punjab, BJP and Congress leaders have also been deputed to other states like Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

National Secretary Dheeraj Gurjar and Zubair Khan have been working with party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi as co in-charge in UP since long. Congress National Secretary Kuldeep Indora has recently been appointed the co in-charge of Uttarakhand.

At the same time, there are about 72 seats in Uttar Pradesh whose responsibility has been given to the leaders of Rajasthan. In Uttarakhand, many Rajasthan leaders including MLA Prashant Bairwa and former mayor Jyoti Khandelwal have been entrusted with responsibilities in the state.

In the coming days, both the political parties in these states will also entrust responsibilities to many other leaders of the state and there are fair chances of including Rajasthan leaders as star campaigners in the election campaign of these states.