Dawn breaks over Vikas every day as he runs. That’s the way it has been for this former defence aspirant since he was 12. Last Monday, he ran about 8km to witness a CPM rally in Dhod.

“We have been wronged. What if I were killed in action? I wouldn’t have even been called a full soldier and my family wouldn’t have got a full pension. I would have just been an Agniveer,” he says.

The bulk of military recruitment in Rajasthan happens from the Shekhawati region, made up of the Jat-dominated districts of Sikar, Churu and Jhunjhunu. Almost every village school is named after local martyrs from the security forces.

The Congress won 15 of the 21 seats in this region last time. The gains in Shekhawati and eastern Rajasthan placed the party comfortably in power.

Unlike other parts of the state, the anti-incumbency here is offset by the heartburn over the Agnipath scheme introduced last year. Under this, defence personnel below officer rank are being initially recruited for four years. Only a quarter of them are to be absorbed for a longer term of service. The rest will get preference in police jobs.

Vikas, who didn’t want to give his full name for fear of hampering his prospects for government service, now aspires to become a schoolteacher.

Friends who jog with him are now trying to secure jobs with the central police forces. All of them lost valuable time when recruitment for enlisted ranks was stalled during the pandemic.

The CPM, which led a massive farmers’ protest in Sikar district in 2017, is reaping some of the benefits of this wrath. At its rally in Dhod, a seat reserved for Scheduled Castes where its leader Pema Ram is contesting, speakers targeted the BJP rather than the Congress.

“We vote with our brains,” said Bansi Choudhary, a local peasant at the rally. “In Dhod, the fight is between the CPM and the BJP as the outgoing Congress MLA’s son is contesting on a Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) ticket. The Congress has changed its candidate and its votes are split. Those who don’t like the BJP will vote for the comrades.”

The Congress replaced its sitting MLA, Parasram Mordia, with J.P. Danodia. Mordia’s son Mahesh is a candidate of Hanuman Beniwal’s RLP.

In other seats in the district, Choudhary said, his friends and relatives will vote for the Congress. “We prepare our sons for the army the moment they are born. Does Modi know what it means to make the army a short-term job?”

Trilok Sunda too was a defence aspirant but is now looking for other government jobs. “Agnipath is a bad scheme but the CPM is worse. There were so many exam scams during Congress rule. So I am voting for the BJP. We need an MLA from a ruling party to get work done. For 20 years, we had CPM MLAs and Dhod is less developed than the rest of Sikar,” he told The Telegraph.

Since 2019, eight Rajasthan government recruitment exams have been cancelled because of question paper leaks, affecting lakhs of students. Police have arrested almost 300 people in connection with these scams.

The CPM’s current state secretary, Amra Ram, has been MLA for 15 of the “20 years” that Sunda mentioned. Ram said the BJP’s use of religion to seek votes and its labelling of communists as anti-national doesn’t work here.

“There are no bigger traitors than the BJP. Their Agnipath is the biggest threat to national security. We tell people not to be surprised by their policies. The RSS did not participate in the freedom struggle, and today the BJP continues to merely serve a few capitalists,” he told this paper.

“It is unfortunate that both the BJP and the Congress use caste for political gains. In March, state presidents of both parties attended the Jat Mahakumbh in Jaipur and gave out the message that they are Jats first and public representatives later. When we fight for fair agricultural policies, it benefits all communities.”

At Sewad Bari village in neighbouring Lachhmangarh constituency, customers of an agricultural input dealer were divided on whom to vote for. Congress state president Govind Dotasra is contesting against the BJP’s Jat strongman Subhash Maharia, who returned to the BJP from the Congress in 2016. Rajasthan Congress chiefs have a record of losing elections while holding the post.

“No government is controlling speculation. During the onion harvest, 50kg of onions were procured for Rs 2.50. Now the rate is Rs 25,” farmer Balbir Ram said.

“We went to Delhi to protest against the three (new farm) laws because they would have increased speculation even further. Both the CPM and the Congress supported the protests. But if the Congress can’t control this crime here, then who can? In the fight between these two VIPs, the CPM doesn’t stand a chance here.”

Most farming here is rainfed, yet many manage to harvest two crops a year. Farmers this paper spoke to reported groundwater at a depth of 100-200 metres. The power supply is erratic and the motors often trip. A second crop has become harder to cultivate and the Agnipath scheme is a double whammy.

Rajasthan reverting to the old pension scheme has come as a balm for Shekhawati, where a government employee is found in every other family.

“An assured pension is a huge boost for government employees who play a big role in elections. Also, Shekhawati is home to Kayamkhani Muslims who share many cultural practices and family ties with Rajputs. Historically, communal polarisation hasn’t worked here and local Muslims have been influential in all parties,” Sikar-based activist Ashfaq Kayamkhani said.

Rewasa village in the Danta Ramgarh constituency, from where Amra Ram is contesting this time, is known for its 12th-century rock inscriptions. Garbage is strewn all along its lanes and piped drinking water comes for 15 minutes every alternate day.

Local resident Ayyub M. said, “Water pipelines were laid under the Congress government, and I am thankful for that. But we need a viable source of water supply. No party has answers for that.”