Rajasthan goes to the polls on December 4, 2008 for a 200 seat assembly. The BJP won 120 seats in the last elections in 2003 with 39.8% of votes and formed the government. The Congress was the main opposition party, winning 56 seats with 35.6% of votes. Other parties and independent candidates won 24 seats with 24.5 % of the vote. Rajasthan is a state where parties other than Congress and BJP have an important role in determining the outcome of the elections.

Rajasthan is the largest state of the Indian Union with different regions and their own specific problems, but all linked to security of livelihood. It is a predominantly agricultural state, leading the country in production of various crops, including maize, bajra, wheat, pulses including chana, chillies and spices, and oilseeds.

The problem of water for irrigation and for cattle is a major one for the peasantry. There is scarcity of water in this state, and there is anger that scarce water is being diverted to meet the needs of newly set up SEZ’s and industrial complexes in and around Jaipur. Successive governments have tried to manipulate the demand for water to win votes, without addressing the larger question of where the water will come from, and how to organise irrigation for the farmers across the state. Thus water distribution through the Indira Gandhi Canal and its different phases has been a major point of struggle of the farmers. Similarly, with water of other rivers and lakes being diverted by the state government away from agricultural use, there has been agitation of farmers. The state government has responded with savage repression, killing many peasant activists.

People’s organisations in Rajasthan have carried out a mass campaign in the state over the question of Special Economic Zones. Thousands of peasants have participated in this campaign. Till date, three SEZs — two near Jaipur and one in Jodhpur — have become operational in Rajasthan. Five others have received “formal approval” and 10 more (including as many as seven multi-product zones above 1,000 hectares each, five of them in Alwar district alone) have acquired “in-principle approval”. The largest of these is the Omaxe SEZ planned in Alwar district which proposes to occupy as much as 6,000 hectares of land.

The peasants of Rajasthan are opposing the forced planting of jatropha for bio-diesel (on as much as 6 million hectares in the state, often on village commons falsely construed as wasteland), and removal of restrictions on the sale of land owned by SC/ST groups.

In the absence of substantial industrial development, there has been pressure for large scale migration of people to other parts of country, in search of some means of livelihood. Construction industry in cities like Delhi is filled with construction workers from Rajasthan. The struggle for social security for workers in the unorganised sector of the economy is a serious issue agitating people’s activists in Rajasthan. In districts like Sikar, the main source of income is remittances from young workers who have migrated to West Asia. In many districts, ground water level is falling to dangerously low levels. Both, agriculture and trade, the two main occupations of people, have suffered.

In Rajasthan, the main avenue for jobs for educated youth is in government organisations. This has been used by the bourgeoisie and its parties like Congress and BJP to use caste based reservation for jobs in the state as a vehicle to divide the people. Both Congress and BJP are extremely busy building up caste organisations which vie with each other for the few government jobs, by demanding reserved status in this or that category.

Rajasthan is a state where the movement of workers and peasants to be decision makers is particularly strong, as a result of sustained work of various people’s organisations. In the elections to the Rajasthan assembly, a number of political forces, including communist parties and organisations, are coming forward to oppose the Congress and BJP.