Jaipur, March 16 (IANS) Political parties in Rajasthan are busy exploring new political equations as the Lok Sabha polls approach, while the election officials are making efforts to increase the voter turnout in the desert state.

Rajasthan has 25 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP has swept the Parliamentary elections here two consecutive times. In the elections in 2014, the BJP contested all the seats and created a record by winning all the 25 seats. In 2019, the BJP contested on 24 seats, and formed an alliance with the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) for the Nagaur seat.

The RLP’s Hanuman Beniwal won the Nagaur seat\ for the NDA alliance. However, later during the protests against the farm laws, he severed ties with the NDA. Beniwal contested the assembly elections in 2023, became the MLA from Khinvsar, and resigned as an MP. The BJP has fielded Jyoti Mirdha from Nagaur for the ensuing LS polls who joined the BJP after leaving the Congress. Jyoti was the Congress candidate from Nagaur in the LS polls last time.

While the BJP is contesting all 25 seats this time, there was speculation that the Congress may form new alliances with the regional parties. However, this seems to be wrong as its discussions for an alliance with the Bharat Adivasi Party and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party have not materialised, said party officials.

There was also talk of a Congress alliance with the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP), RLP and the Left. But due to various reasons this did not happen. The BAP was demanding two seats from the Congress - Dungarpur-Banswara and Udaipur. But the Congress was ready to give only one seat. In such a situation, the Congress declared its candidate from Udaipur.. for the Dungarpur seat, the BAP also declared MLA Rajkumar Rot as its candidate. It now seems clear that both the parties have parted ways.

At the same time, the speculation about an alliance with Hanuman Beniwal for the Nagaur seat has also been put to rest. The Jat leaders of the Congress, the leaders of Nagaur and the state leadership were not ready for an alliance with the RLP. Now, the party has decided to field its own candidate in Nagaur.

Party sources told that “Beniwal has won the assembly polls with a thin margin. He has been asking for a ticket for his wife, but how can he promise winnability when he won the assembly polls with a small margin? Also, he was speaking badly about the Congress during the assembly polls so it might have given a wrong projection of our party, they added.

Meanwhile, many veteran Congress leaders including minister Mahendrajit Singh Malviya, former minister Lalchand Kataria and Rajendra Yadav have joined the BJP and many more are expected to join the party on Saturday. On the other hand, BJP MP Rahul Kaswan has joined the Congress after being denied a ticket by the party.

In 2019, voting was held in two phases in Rajasthan for the 25 seats. Votes were cast for 13 seats in the first phase and for 12 seats in the second phase. Out of these 25 seats, seven seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. While Udaipur, Banswara-Dungarpur and Dausa are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, the Sriganganagar, Bikaner, Bharatpur and Karauli-Dholpur seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes.

There were over 4.77 crore voters in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan out of which around 3.24 crore had cast their votes. The total voting percentage in the state in the Lok Sabha elections 2019 was 67.9%. This was more than the voting percentage of 63.1% in the 2014 elections. In 2014, there were a total of 4.29 crore voters out of which 2.71 crore had cast their votes.

Now, before the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, the total number of registered voters in the state has crossed 5.32 crore, said officials adding that, "The supplementary lists would be updated till 10 days before the last date of nomination for the Lok Sabha elections.”