The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party convenor Hanuman Beniwal has said that he expects to put up a close fight on nearly 100 out of the total 200 Assembly seats in Rajasthan in the upcoming elections.
Beniwal also said that his party was in talks with parties other than previous ally BJP and Congress for a pre-poll alliance.
He expressed hope in forging an alliance and finalising an election strategy in the next few days.
Voting in all the 200 assembly constituencies in Rajasthan will be held on November 25 and counting of votes will take place on December 3.
"I am in touch with other 'like-minded' parties to form a poll alliance which will emerge as an alternative to the BJP and the Congress," Beniwal said.
He said that it will not be a matter of surprise if the BJP or Congress secures the third position in the upcoming Assembly polls.
"We will be fighting the election on issues of farmers and the youths, corruption and paper leaks. I am expecting that the majority of new voters will vote for the RLP. There is huge resentment against the BJP over its apathy towards farmers and the Agnipath scheme. Lakhs of youths preparing for Army recruitment have anger against the Modi government," he added.
Beniwal to contest polls but seats not finalised yet
He said that he will also contest in the polls, however, the seat has yet not been finalised.
The RLP will be prominently focusing on seats in Shekhawati, Marwar and Mewar regions.
"I am expecting a close fight on around 100 seats in districts like Nagaur, Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Jodhpur, Barmer, Pali, Bharatpur, Karauli, Udaipur, Bikaner," he said.
The party contested 57 seats in the 2018 assembly elections.
Beniwal said that he had suggested Congress leader Sachin Pilot to launch his own party and join hands with him. He said that both of them could have won a considerable number of seats together if Pilot had agreed to launch his own party and forged an alliance with the RLP.
He claimed that the youth would not vote for Pilot as the Congress government did not do anything on the points he had raised.
"He talked about issues of the youths but when the government decided not to hold student union elections this year, he did not say anything. Majority of the new voters will vote for the RLP," Beniwal said.
Beniwal attacks BJP
Attacking the BJP, Beniwal claimed that the party-led government at the Centre was misusing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for political reasons and said the results of raids by the federal agency should be made public.
"There are many leaders who have joined the BJP for fear of the ED, CBI and the Income Tax department," Beniwal claimed, referring to former Nagaur MP Jyoti Mirdha.
Jyoti Mirdha, who comes from the Mirdha family that has been politically influential in Nagaur for decades, joined the BJP from the Congress last month.
Beniwal was elected on a BJP ticket in 2008 and won in the 2013 Rajasthan assembly election as an independent.
He formed the RLP ahead of the 2018 assembly elections and won three seats.
After Beniwal was elected as Lok Sabha MP from Nagaur in 2019 in alliance with the BJP, Nagaur's Khinvsar assembly seat fell vacant and his brother Narayan Beniwal won in the subsequent bypoll.
(With PTI inputs)
