Rajasthan : Not a conducive place for Regional Parties

Regional parties have received a mixed response from the voters in Rajasthan, where electoral politics is largely dominated by two national parties – BJP and Congress. The state saw long periods of Congress rule, and it was as late as 1977 when the state saw its first non-Congress government, headed by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. The BJP, founded in 1980, became a strong political force by 1989, largely due to the Ram Janmabhoomi temple agitation.

Since the early 1990s, it has been BJP and Congress that have alternately formed the government in the state. The space for regional forces is almost negligible in Rajasthan. While communist parties have occasionally registered a nominal presence with a few victories, elections in the state have largely been a direct contest between BJP and Congress. Here, we will discuss the political fortunes of some regional parties that have emerged on the political scene of the state in recent years.

India Regional Parties

Zamindara Party

B.D. Agarwal, the "Guar Gum King," revived this party in the state before the 2013 assembly elections. His party won two seats in the assembly, with his daughter Kamini Jindal winning from Ganganagar and Sona Devi winning from Rai Singh Nagar. The party secured 1.0% of the vote in this election.

However, the party failed to achieve success in subsequent elections. In 2018, Kamini Jindal contested from the same constituency but finished in sixth place. The death of promoter and founder B.D. Agarwal during the Covid wave in 2020 led to the party's decline.

National People’s Party (NPP)

Dr. Kirodilal Meena, who had left the BJP after a disagreement with the party leadership and had been operating as a one-man army, started the NPP in 2013. He fielded candidates in 134 out of 200 assembly seats. The party became an alternative platform for leaders aspiring for tickets from other parties, especially the BJP.

The party won 4 seats: Kirodi himself won from Lalsot, his wife Golma Devi won from Rajgarh-Lakshmangarh, Geeta Verma won from Sikrai, and Naveen Pilania defeated BJP's Satish Poonia to win from Amber. However, the party became redundant when Kirodi and other leaders, excluding Pilania, joined the BJP in 2018.

Bharat Vahini Party

After a fallout with then-Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, senior BJP leader Ghanshyam Tiwari formed the Bharat Vahini Party in 2018. As a devout RSS follower and believer in its ideology, he modeled his party on the principles of the Sangh. However, the party failed to gain traction in the 2018 assembly elections. Tiwari himself lost from Sanganer, and his defeat was so significant that his deposit was forfeited. After this humiliating defeat, he joined the Congress party and later rejoined the BJP.

Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP)

A fallout with Vasundhara Raje and ideological differences with the BJP led Hanuman Beniwal to form the RLP in 2018, just before the assembly elections. From the start, RLP became a formidable force in Nagaur and surrounding areas. Beniwal, who won his first election from Khinwsar constituency in 2008 as a BJP candidate, continued his victory streak by winning the Lok Sabha elections from Nagaur in 2019 and 2024.

However, the party’s fortunes were reversed in the recent Khinwsar bypoll, where Beniwal's wife, Kanika Beniwal, lost the election, reducing RLP’s presence in the assembly to zero.

Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP)

The BAP is currently experiencing electoral success in Rajasthan. As of now, the party has four MLAs from the tribal belt of the state – Chorasi, Dhariawad, Aspur, and Bagidora – which it won from senior tribal leader Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya. The party also has one MP from the Banswara-Dungarpur region in the Lok Sabha, making BAP the third-largest party in the state in terms of seats.