 "Jaswant Singh")
Swarth and apmaan, self-interest and dishonour. For a month, the 1.7 million voters of Barmer-Jaisalmer, a sprawling expanse of gravelled sand and stunted shrub along the Rajasthan-Pakistan border, had ruminated on the motives behind this particular electoral contest and now polls were upon them.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had shunned party stalwart Jaswant Singh, a Rajput and former minister of finance, defence and external affairs, in favour of Sonaram Choudhary, a Jat, former army officer, three-time Barmer MP and civil contractor of significant means, who, four days prior to his nomination as the party's candidate, quit the Congress and joined the BJP.
Was Singh being greedy by demanding a ticket and turning against his party of 44 years when denied? Or, had the party's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, connived with Rajasthan's Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, to settle old scores and dishonour one of the BJP's tallest leaders by spurning him in favour of a Congress turncoat?
Being Rajasthan - a state that has transitioned straight from feudalism to tourism - the contest was varnished with a patina of Rajput-Jat caste rivalry.
"You cannot throw your father out of the house simply because he is old. This is about honour," said a Rajput as he chewed a kachori at a Barmer teashop, "At any rate, everyone is fed up with the oppressive Jats."
Raje has shown a particular interest in winning this seat. She has visited Barmer and Jaisalmer more than once and last week, Modi himself addressed an election rally in Barmer, where he did not mention Choudhary's name even once, and made it clear it was Singh versus Raje-Modi. "If you trust me, then vote for BJP or else don't," Modi said bluntly.
Since independence, the BJP has won the Barmer-Jaisalmer seat only once -when Singh's son, Manvendra, defeated Choudhary (then with the Congress) in 2004. The constituency, as Singh notes with characteristic cosmopolitanism, is larger than Israel and is divided between the Jats, Muslims, Rajputs and the Meghwal Scheduled Caste.
Singh grew up in Jasol, a village a few hours from Barmer, the younger son in a landholding family. He served briefly in the Army, and fought his first election in 1967 as an independent. Now, 76, his hands occasionally flutter as he reaches for evening tea. Yet Singh remains an imposing presence, with furrowed brow and an imperious colonial accent.
"I think it is poetic justice," Singh said, "I contested my first election as an independent. Twelve elections later, I am also contesting as an independent."
He lost his first election but in 1980 joined as a founding member of the BJP. As his party embraced the Ram janmabhoomi movement, Singh said he remained distant from its communal politics even when he defended it in Parliament after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.
He maintained warm relations with Rajasthan's Muslim community and takes credit for reviving the Thar Express - a weekly train that runs from Jodhpur to Karachi and has become a lifeline for predominantly Muslim traders in both cities. In his manifesto for 2014, he has promised to make the train halt in Barmer before it crosses the border.
When the BJP swept to power in 1998 and 1999, Singh was tasked with some of the toughest assignments. In 1998, he contained the diplomatic fallout of India's nuclear tests as minister for external affairs. The summer of 1999 heralded the Kargil conflict and that winter, terrorists hijacked Indian Airlines Flight IC 814. In 2002, Singh found himself in an airplane with Vajpayee and Advani. In an interview years later, he said Vajpayee wanted to take action against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly allowing the communal riots to escalate but Advani demurred. That was the moment, Singh felt, the power shifted from Vajpayee to Modi.
"The moral compass had begun to go awry," he said, speaking of the riots. "Then was the time to reflect and find an answer." In 2009, Gujarat became the first state to ban Singh's book on Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Singh was expelled from the BJP and subsequently readmitted. So why did he stay on in the party? "I didn't wish to leave Atalji alone," he said.
Today, Singh appears befuddled by the manner of his expulsion and by Modi's aggressive campaign. "It's a party being run by diktat now."
On the last day of campaigning, Chaudhary is meeting two communities that could turn this election: In the morning, he will seek to undercut Singh's upper caste support by addressing the BJP's hardcore base at the temple of the Pipa Kshatriya Samaj. Later, he hopes to win over the Muslims by leveraging his long association with the Congress.
Through the day, his personal secretary juggles two Nokia handsets - one black, the other white - calling influential individuals across the constituency and handing the phone to Chaudhary with a whispered biography of the person on the other end. By the time Chaudhary finishes with one call, the next potential supporter has been lined up on the other instrument.
Chaudhary, 69, is a tall, heavyset man with large ears and a foghorn for a voice that he uses to great effect, particularly over the telephone. He can also be blunt. "We will form the government in Delhi. We are the government in Jaipur. Win or lose, I will run things around here," he says to a particularly recalcitrant individual, "I want you to think about that."
At the Pipa Samaj meeting, his pitch is simple. "This vote is not a vote for me," he said to an initially sceptical gathering, "This is a vote for Narendra Modi as prime minister." The crowd bursts into applause.
Two hours and several phone calls later, he is in the Muslim settlement of Navedabera. "If Modi becomes prime minister, what will Modi do?" he says, "I have been the MP here three times before; have I ever allowed injustice to be perpetrated on the minorities?" He concludes five minutes later, "Thank you all for coming, and in two days, inshallah, let us see what will happen."
The campaign piles back into the car, the PA starts dialling another number. "It's going to be very hard for Jaswant Singh," says Chaudhary, the candidate trying to be in two parties at once, "He has nothing in Delhi now, and nothing on the ground here."
