There are several reasons for the Congress’s defeat in Rajasthan. However, one major reason being discussed is Naresh Arora, considered the hero of Karnataka’s victory. Party leaders are expected to express their anger towards Arora sooner or later. Arora is the owner of a DesignBoxed company. He increased contact with the Congress through a female leader from Himachal. It is said that he established relations with prominent leaders of the Congress, including Randeep Surjewala, Ajay Maken, and Priyanka Gandhi’s private secretary Sandeep Singh. He took responsibility for winning the party in states like Haryana and Assam but was unsuccessful. He was active in Rajasthan in 2018, but not this time.
The real hero of Karnataka’s victory was Deputy Chief Minister D. Shivakumar, but along with him, Sunil Kanugolu and Naresh Arora were also considered heroes. Kanugolu set the agenda for Karnataka, and Arora took charge of the publicity strategy for the Pradesh Congress, contributing to the party’s victory. Both were considered heroes in the party’s eyes.
Upon the suggestion of Deputy Chief Minister D. Shivakumar, Chief Minister Gehlot assigned Naresh Arora the responsibility of winning the party. He was given a significant amount for this work. Kanugolu was given the responsibility of conducting surveys in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, while the rest of the work was assigned to Telangana. The party won in Telangana, and Sunil Kanugolu became a hero. Kanugolu may now contest for Congress in the Lok Sabha.
In Rajasthan, Naresh Arora conducted the ‘Bachat Rahat Camp’ campaign to prove his usefulness. However, attention was not paid to mistakes, and it led to dissatisfaction among officers. While it was fine until he gave directions to officers, when he got responsibilities, Congress’s game in the state began to deteriorate. There were disagreements with the organization about the expenses, and there were complaints about internal party plans. There was no enthusiasm for the schemes within the party.
Dissatisfied with Arora’s behaviour, party workers and leaders limited their interaction with him. The real report did not reach Chief Minister Gehlot. There are also discussions about differences between this private secretary and Arora. Gehlot became assured that everything was going well since he was getting information from counted people during the election. He trusted those who informed him and believed that the schemes were working. However, that was not the case. While the BJP worked meticulously to attract youth and female voters, the BJP thoroughly exploited the Kanhaiya Lal incident. A cartoon related to the incident was viral across Rajasthan one day before voting. Naresh Arora’s company had already exhausted the budget for the second phase of promotion. The likelihood of Congress winning in Rajasthan, according to an active worker, was only 50 seats, and the one who won more seats would form the government. If Congress issued seven guarantees in the war room program, the expressions of the leaders and workers indicated that they were not in agreement with Arora’s behaviour. Arora, who openly discussed the number of seats Congress was winning in Karnataka after the election, remained silent about Rajasthan. He only said that they were winning.
It is strange that while the BJP claimed 130 to 135 seats, Congress never made any claims.
The surprising thing is that the satta bazaar, which determined the number of seats in Rajasthan, matched the results even on the day of the announcement. Not only that, the media had already predicted the possibility of so many seats being won even before the election was announced. The Congress’s defeat in Rajasthan this time is going to be significant because the issues that originated in Rajasthan have come to an end with the defeat.
