In the Jat bastion of Nagaur Lok Sabha seat in Rajasthan, the political future of two leading candidates — BJP’s Jyoti Mirdha and INDIA bloc’s Hanuman Beniwal (Rashtriya Loktantrik Party) — hangs precariously. It’s the same set of candidates as in 2019, but the difference is they have switched sides. Mirdha was Congress candidate in 2019, and Beniwal a BJP ally.
The battle between them is vituperatively personal. Beniwal is fighting to gain supremacy as a Jat leader in a state that has traditionally cut the community’s leaders, like the influential Madernas and Mirdhas, to size. Whereas Mirdha, who switched from Congress to BJP last year, is out to rediscover herself with bitterness towards the grand old party palpable in her speeches.

In 2019, RLP chief Beniwal rode the Modi wave, as an NDA ally, to win in Nagaur but parted ways with BJP in Dec 2020 over farmers’ protest. Last year, he resigned as an MP after being elected as MLA from Khinwsar in Nagaur district. This time though, Beniwal appears to be swimming upstream as RLP lost much of its footprint in the 2023 assembly elections and as an INDIA candidate, he will be devoid of a cushion if the polls throw up another Modi wave. From three seats in 2013, RLP could hold on to only one in last year’s state polls, with Beniwal pulling off a narrow win. Also, INDIA support is shaky for him. Local poll watchers say some Congress leaders have reservations in supporting him as he fielded candidates against them in last year’s state polls.
Mirdha too faces a trial by fire. She was elected in 2009 from Nagaur as Congress MP but lost in 2014 and 2019 LS polls. After dumping Congress last year, she fought assembly polls as a BJP candidate but still could not score a win. She is now banking on bashing Congress. “In 1977, when everybody in Congress was defeated, my grandfather (Nathu Ram Mirdha) won. Since then, some in the state Congress did not want me to occupy a prominent position despite the top leadership backing me.
They fielded the same gentleman (Beniwal) as an independent candidate in 2014 and he lost his deposit,” said Mirdha.
If the Jats split their support equally to both candidates, it will be down to the constituency’s sizeable Muslim voters. In fact, Muslims account for around 14% of the electorate here, higher than the state average of around 10%. “They both can claim Jat votes. But minority support will be the deciding factor,” said Rajesh Dukia, an entrepreneur. He said that unlike in other districts, minorities here are not fixated on Congress.
“They have voted for BJP in the past and may support Mirdha. Also, there is her and her family’s Congress background,” he said.
Beniwal is counting Congress candidates from Nagaur’s assembly constituencies like Ladnun, Makrana and Nagaur that have large concentrations of Muslim voters to channel support for him.