Jaipur: Rajendra Rathore is a seven-time MLA from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a prominent figure in Rajasthan politics. Rathore is understood to have a strong influence on Rajput votersSpeaking to The Wire ahead of the assembly election to the state, Rathore discussed various aspects of the polls, the question of Vasundhara Raje’s “snub” in the fact that the party has not declared a chief ministerial candidate and why such a decision was taken.“When we have Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face, then I don’t think we need any other face in the state. Our first motive is to win the elections, after which the party will decide the CM, and we will stand with the party’s decision,” Rathore said.Rathore is leader of opposition in the state, where Congress is in power.“Ashok Gehlot is the same chief minister who once praised himself as the number one in the country and got 21 seats in 2013. Congress is on its way to an even bigger loss in 2013,” he says. In the 2013 assembly election, Congress had won 21 seats out of 200. Over the past 25 years, the people of Rajasthan have elected both parties. Rathore says that he believes it is now the time for the BJP to be elected back. “CM Gehlot says that this time Rajasthan’s pattern will change, and Congress will continue to form the government. I agree with him, the pattern will change, and the Congress party will be completely wiped out from the state,” he said.Recently, in an interview with The Wire, Govind Singh Dotasara, who is Rajasthan’s Pradesh Congress Committee chief, said that the BJP has already lost the elections because it is giving tickets to MPs in Rajasthan. On this, Rathore said, “Narendra Modi is the decision-maker in the party, and he decides which party worker will contest from which seat. We are standing with our party’s decision. What is the reason why Congress hasn’t even cleared their first list of candidates? Even when the CM said in August that candidates must be known two months prior to the elections,” he asked.The BJPs first list of candidates came out in the second week of October. When can we expect the second list?“I believe by the end of this week, our entire list of candidates will be out, and our party workers will be on the ground.”In the first list, the BJP has not given tickets to former chief minister Raje’s close aides, which disappointed some party workers who turned up at Raje’s residence in Jaipur. Some of them were prominent faces and former ministers in her government. Narpat Singh from Vidyadhar Nagar, who is also the son-in-law of the late former Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and had the portfolio of Ministry of Health in Rajasthan, was replaced with Diya Kumari, an MP from Rajsamand. Rampal Singh Shekhawat from Jhotwara was replaced by Jaipur Rural MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. In Raje’s government, Rampal was Minister for Industries, Public Enterprises, DMIC & NRI Affairs. Were Raje and her aides being snubbed? “Vasundhara ji is our leader, and the party’s central leadership will decide her role. When we have Prime Minister Modi’s face in the state, then I don’t think we need any other face in the state. Our first motive is to win the elections…”Raje was notably absent when party president J.P. Nadda was present in Kota. Raje is also from the Hadoti region, and there are 17 seats in the region where BJP has a strong presence. Rathore rules out possibility of animosity between the two.“There is nothing like that. I also have to be there as the leader of the opposition, but it’s election time, and we are all busy in the field,” he said.What will change in Rajasthan if people bring a “double engine” government, according to Rathore?“See, in Rajasthan, many things will change,” says Rathore. “The atmosphere of terror and plunder will change. We are making Sankalp Patra, which will be out soon. Our promises will be based on people’s demands as we are visiting villages in Rajasthan and noting down their demands so that we can put them on paper. Right now, in Gehlot’s government, every MLA of his is a mini-chief minister in their area,” he adds.When asked about the success of double engine governments in states like Manipur which have seen so much violence, Rathore says “we should not compare things with Manipur.”Finally, when asked as to why BJP is not declaring Ashok Gehlot’s Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) as a national project, Rathore cites Gehlot’s own failure.“We have no objection to declaring it a national project. CM Gehlot had promised five years ago that he would resolve this problem on his own, and he failed. This government has no intention to fulfil this ERCP scheme. I remember when Kamal Nath was the chief minister of neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, he had refused to give a No Objection Certificate to Rajasthan for the project. If Mr. Gehlot really wanted to do something for the people, he could have gone to the CWC and resolved the issue back then,” he said.