Jaipur: Rarely does one see two Indian Olympians battling it out on the electoral field. But that is exactly case in Rajasthan’s Jaipur Rural constituency where BJP’s Col Rajyavardhan Rathore and Congress’s Krishna Poonia – will face off against each other in the Lok Sabha polls.
Olympian-turned-politician Rathore who is the Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, had won the seat in the 2014 elections. Congress on the other hand fielded Poonia who is the sitting MLA of Churu district’s Sadulpur assembly seat.
For Poonia, this election is a ‘fight of two ideologies’. She said she will be fighting the elections on the basis of issues related to the common man.
“It is okay that we are athletes but this is fight of two ideologies. The 2014 Lok Sabha election was fought in the name of (Narendra) Modi only. False promises were made and the time was just passed in ‘Jumlebazi’. I come from a simple farmer’s family and the issues which are related with the common man will be my issues in the elections,” Poonia told this agency Thursday. “This election is for the protection of democracy.”
The constituency mostly spread in rural areas is already abuzz with campaign by Rathore who made his electoral debut by winning the seat in 2014 by a margin of 3,32,896 votes. He is busy meeting people of his constituency and highlighting the achievements of the Modi government with the latest being India’s demonstration of the capacity to shoot down a satellite in space.
“People have seen the work done by the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Development work done in the last five years is much more than what was done in 50 years,” Rathore said during his campaign Wednesday.
“I remained in regular touch with the people of my constituency and allotted fund for development work in all gram panchayats, wards, without any bias and discrimination,” a release quoted him as having said during campaigning in Kotputali area.
Poonia, who nominated Monday by the Congress hasn’t started his campaign yet. She said she will do so, Friday.
Rathore, 49, who has been a celebrated double-trap shooter (he won silver in the 2004 Athens Olympics), focusses on encouraging youths for participating in sports activities. He said this has received a good response from their parents also.
Rathore was a colonel in the Army and took voluntary retirement and joined the BJP in 2013 whereas Padma Shri awardee and discus thrower Poonia, who won gold medal in 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and also participated in the Olympic Games for three times, joined the Congress the same year and contested the 2013 assembly elections, but lost.
The Jaipur Rural Lok Sabha seat, which has 19.33 lakh electorates, 9.12 lakh of them female, is dominated by the Jat community, followed by Brahmin, Yadav and SC voters. The caste equation is favourable for Poonia who belongs to the Jat community.
Of the eight assembly segments in the Lok Sabha constituency, the ruling Congress has five seats, two are with the BJP and one is with an Independent MLA. During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had five seats while the Congress had two assembly seats falling under the Jaipur Rural constituency.
PTI