- BJP always has an edge over Rau in Municipal Corporation and Lok Sabha elections, while Congress has been winning assembly elections for the last two times
- Party considered the seats lost in the 2018 assembly elections in weak category
- BJP finalized Madhu Verma’s ticket from here in first list
Milind Muzumdar, Indore
Rau assembly seat, which came into existence after the delimitation of 2008, is a stronghold of BJP, yet the party has kept it in the list of aspirational seats for the assembly elections. What BJP means by aspirational seats is that the party is considering such assembly seats as weak in the context of 2023 elections.
The party has considered the seats lost in the 2018 assembly elections as weak category. Rau assembly seat is completely favorable for BJP from the point of view of political and social equations. BJP has always got an edge in this assembly seat in the elections of Lok Sabha, Mayor and councilors. In the Municipal Corporation elections held last year, BJP had got a lead of 31000 votes from only 8 wards falling under Rau Assembly seat. The party got 6 councilors elected from here.
Even in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, MP Shankar Lalwani got a lead of about 54,000 votes over Pankaj Sanghvi. Sumitra Tai also got a huge lead from Rau assembly seat in 2009 and 2014 elections. Whereas the party has consistently won the mayor’s election from here. A large number of Marathi speaking, Hindi Brahmin and other upper caste voters live in this assembly seat, who are traditional voters of BJP. Apart from this, Rau Municipality and other rural areas also come in this area. A large number of Patidar, Dhakad and Rajput voters live in rural areas who are considered supporters of BJP. BJP is getting majority in Rau Municipality also for the last two times. Even on a seat favorable to BJP, Jitu Patwari has hoisted the flag of victory twice in a row. In 2013, he defeated the then BJYM state president Jitu Jirati by more than 19,000 votes.
An interesting coincidence was that at that time Jitu Patwari was also the state president of Youth Congress. Another interesting coincidence is that both the leaders are neighbors of each other in Bijalpur Gram Panchayat of the assembly constituency. Jitu Jirati was elected MLA from here in 2008 by defeating Jitu Patwari, but in 2013 he was defeated by Jitu Patwari. In 2018, the party gave a ticket to Madhu Verma from here. He fought well but lost by about 5300 votes. Jitu Patwari is certain to contest again in the 2023 assembly elections. Both the prominent leaders of the state Congress, Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh have indicated to Jitu Patwari to contest the elections. Jitu Patwari approaches Rahul Gandhi, hence it is not easy to cut his ticket. Jitu Patwari is considered a leader with a mass base. He has strong contacts and networks in Rau seat. In such a situation, there is a big challenge for BJP in this seat. BJP has kept this seat in the weak category, that is why it has finalized the ticket of Madhu Verma from here in its first list on August 17, Who lost to Jitu Patwari by 5500 votes in the last election. According to sources, Congress is going to release its first list soon in which there is every possibility of Jitu Patwari’s name being there.
Major problems of Rau assembly constituency
40 percent of Rau assembly constituency is urban and 60 percent is rural. The urban part comes under Indore Municipal Corporation. For this reason, a lot of development work has been done here. Colonies like Lokmanya Nagar, Vaishali Nagar, Sudama Nagar, Sampadar Nagar, Datta Nagar, Pragati Nagar, Brij Bihar, Silicon City, etc. fall in this area, where the citizens are very conscious about cleanliness. The biggest problem in the urban area here is increasing crime and lack of proper management of drainage. Even with a little rain, roads in urban areas get filled with water. Apart from this, crimes are also continuously increasing in this area. Some time ago, fed up with drug abuse and increasing hooliganism in a part of Treasure Fantasy Colony of Rajendra Nagar police station area, citizens had pasted posters outside their houses stating that houses are for sale. Whose discussion remained in the media till the state level. Indore Police later formed a special team and tried to solve this problem. Incidents of chain snatching and mobile snatching also keep happening in Cat Road, Kesarbagh Bridge, Prateek (Rajendra Nagar) Setu and Reti and Fruit Mandi areas of the same area. Whereas incidents of theft are also happening regularly in many colonies here. Citizens complain about the problem of community health centers and shortage of doctors in rural areas.
