The Jats are a political force in Rajasthan and the community's presence in 85 assembly constituencies may tilt the balance in electoral politics.
The Jat community is a force to reckon with in Rajasthan politics.
Jats have been loyal to the Congress, but in the last 35 years, largely because of the efforts of the late Bharatiya Janata Party veteran Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, young Jat leaders gravitated to the BJP.
Hanuman Beniwal, a firebrand Jat leader, floated in 2018 the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, a party of Jats. It has three members in the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha; Beniwal is a member of the Lok Sabha.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party had an alliance which came apart later.
The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party may seek electoral adjustments with the Congress for the November 2023 assembly election in Rajasthan.
The Jats and their brethren, the Bishnois, have a presence in about 85 of Rajasthan's 200 Vidhan Sabha seats; they have a presence in 10 out of the state's 25 Lok Sabha seats.
Currently, there are 42 MLAs from the Jat and Bishnoi communities.
"The Jats are so powerful that the BJP and Congress both opted for a Jat as their state unit chief. In the Congress, Nathuram Mirdha, Parasram Maderna, Ramnarayan Choudhry, Narayan Singh have all been Jat leaders who were made the PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee president," says political observer Sooraj Khatri.
The Jats recently convened a Jat Mahakumbh. Though the Jaipur conclave was dubbed apolitical, Jat MLAs and MPs from both the Congress and BJP attended the event which was basically aimed to assert the community's demand that the next chief minister of the state should be a Jat.
The other demand was to increase the percentage of reservation for the OBCs from 21 to 27 percent.
The Jats also demanded that a caste census be undertaken to determine the strength of various OBC communities.
The Jats are insisting on a caste census as they feel they comprise 22 percent of the total state's population and 55 percent of the OBCs.
Hence, the demand to increase the OBC reservation in government jobs and in educational institutions from 21 percent to 27 percent.
The Jats feel that with a rise in reservations, more Jats would be eligible for government jobs.
The Jats were included as OBCs in 1997 when then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee flew to Jaipur to make the announcement.
The Jat Mahakumbh was the brain child of community leaders Raja Ram Meel and Vijay Punia.
Both PCC President Govind Singh Dotasara and his BJP counterpart Satish Punia, who aspires to be the first Jat chief minister if the BJP wins power in November, attended the Jat Mahakumbh.
The meeting was not attended by former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who is a Maratha from the Gwalior royalty, but is married into the Jat royal family of Dholpur.
Though Vasundhara Raje kept away from the conclave, she sent a message for its success.
Union Minister Kailash Choudhry and two other Lok Sabha MPs attended the Jat Mahakumbh, but Hanuman Beniwal and other Rashtriya Loktantrik Party leaders abstained from the conclave.
The Jats have been at odds with the Congress's central leadership since 1998 when under Parasram Maderna as the PCC president the Congress routed the BJP led by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in the assembly election.
The Jats believed the Congress high command should have made Parasram Maderna chief minister, but Madhavrao Scindia, who was sent as the Congress observer, endeavoured to make Ashok Gehlot, who belongs to the Mali community, as the chief minister. Maderna was appointed assembly speaker.
"What was interesting was the demand of the community that whosoever comes to power, the next chief minister should be a Jat. It was the first time that such a demand on a community basis was made," says Satya Pareek, who has written a book on Jat power in politics.
"The Jats are demanding their pound of flesh as the Jats are powerful in both the ruling Congress and the BJP. The Jats are not ready to accept Vasundhara Raje, who is married into the Jat royal family of Dholpur," adds Pareek.
"They feel Vasundhara Raje is not a genuine Jat and want a genuine Jat as chief minister," Pareek adds.
Sooraj Khatri, the political observer, points out that while the Jats have an influence in 85 assembly constituencies, their number in the Vidhan Sabha across various parties is limited to 42 MLAs.
Khatri believes the demand for making a Jat as chief minister may not be accepted by other communities.
"The Jats should play their cards well to achieve their goals," says state BJP chief Satish Punia, who is being projected by the Jat community as likely chief minister if the BJP comes to power. The community is yet to locate a Jat candidate who could be chief minister if the Congress retains power.
The BJP is currently witnessing a confrontation between the Satish Punia faction and the Vasundhara Raje group.
Vasundhara Raje used her birthday last week to highlight her popularity in the party when 53 out of the 72 BJP MLAs and 11 out of the 25 MPs attended her birthday celebration in Salasar, near Jaipur.
Meanwhile, a day before the Jat Mahakumbh, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced the formation of a Veer Tejaji Kalyan Board. The Jats revere Veer Tejaji and the board is seen as Gehlot's card to appease the Jats by creating a welfare board for the community.
Now after the Jat Mahakumbh a similar conclave of Brahmins is to be held in Jaipur on Sunday, March 19, where the Brahmins are likely to demand that a Brahmin be made the next chief minister.
The years leading to the 2018 state polls saw the rise of Hanuman Beniwal, a former BJP leader who formed the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party. Beniwal is a bitter critic of Vasundhara Raje. Yet, after forming his party, Beniwal tied up with the BJP.
In 2020, when the farmers' protest against the now repealed agriculture laws gathered steam, the Jat leader walked out of the National Democratic Alliance.
Beniwal's absence at the Jat Mahakumbh indicates a split of votes in the Jat community.
The emerging poll arithmetic will be keenly watched by the BJP and Congress as they fine-tune their campaign for the assembly elections.
The challenge is bigger for the Congress than the BJP because of the ongoing tussle between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot.
Pilot, who led the failed 2020 rebellion that almost toppled the Congress government, is from the Gurjar community, another influential caste group.
He is now touring Jat-dominated areas to rally support for the Congress. Some observers suspect that Pilot's agenda is to seek the Jat community's support for himself as the Jats are Gehlot's political foes.
Gehlot, who earlier said that caste cannot determine who gets the chief minister's post, is also reaching out to the Jat community as elections approach.
The BJP has so far decided not to project anybody as its chief minister candidate though Satish Punia as its Jat president would try to muster Jat community votes.
The party is also out to woo the Gujjar vote. Gujjars voted overwhelmingly for the Congress in 2018 in the hope that Pilot, their leader, would become the chief minister.
But the Congress leadership chose Gehlot as Rajasthan's chief minister.
