The sway of religion in battleground Pokhran

LOCAL LEADERS SAID THE SEAT HAS AROUND 222,000 VOTERS WITH AROUND 60,000 MUSLIMS AND 42,000 RAJPUTS

- Sachin Saini and Mukesh Mathrani

For close to five decades, the town of Pokhran, 112 km to the east of Jaisalmer, has been an Indian symbol of hard power. It is here, at a fallow range 45 kilometres from the town limits that India conducted two nuclear tests, part of the country’s coming of age as a global power. Yet, with crucial polls to the Rajasthan state legislature less than 20 days away, on ground at Pokhran, the conversation is not around nationalism, but a communal cleavage among its residents.

The narrative is clear from the primary contenders in the fray : the BJP candidate is Swami Pratap Puri, a Rajput leader who doubles up as a religious seer, the head of the “Taratara Math” in Barmer; and the sitting Congress MLA and minister in the Ashok Gehlot cabinet, Shale Mohammad, the son of Muslim religious leader Gazi Fakir, a member of the Peer Pagaro, a sect of Sindhi Muslims that has followers on both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border.