4 min readJaipurJan 26, 2026 02:32 PM IST
First published on: Jan 25, 2026 at 01:03 PM IST
As the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls continues in Rajasthan, state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra and Leader of Opposition Tikaram Jully are leading the Opposition party’s charge against alleged irregularities in the exercise.
In recent years, whether it’s steering the Congress through successful election campaigns or the ongoing efforts to restructure the organisation or taking on the ruling BJP, the Dotasra-Jully combination has steadily strengthened its hold in the Rajasthan Congress. According to sources, their growing influence has now become a concern for political rivals in the party.
Rajasthan’s political history has seen the state swing between the Congress and BJP from one Assembly election to the next. Most recently, the BJP ousted the Congress after the 2023 Assembly polls. But despite having won all 25 of the state’s Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 2019, the 2024 general elections saw the BJP drop to 14 seats, with the Congress recovering to eight seats as the INDIA bloc reached a combined 11 seats.
Behind the Congress’s Lok Sabha comeback, party sources said, were efforts on the ground led by Dotasra and Jully to successfully build a Jat-Dalit support base. While Dotasra is a Jat leader, Jully is the state’s first Dalit LoP. Party insiders said despite the Congress’s loss in the Assembly polls, Dotasra had assured the Congress high command that it would win 10 to 12 seats in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress’s previous term – under then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot from 2018 to 2023 – had been marred by factionalism, particularly the tussle between Gehlot and former state party chief Sachin Pilot, making the party an easy target for the BJP. But with the Congress now in the Opposition, Dotasra and Jully have been actively ensuring the party puts up a united front.
The row over SIR shows how Dotasra and Jully have been applying relentless pressure on the BJP. The two have been holding regular press conferences in Jaipur and New Delhi to allege that the BJP is trying to delete Congress voters from the electoral rolls. At a press conference in Delhi on January 19, Dotasara directly targeted Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing the senior BJP leader of hatching a “secret plan” for “large-scale fraudulent revision of the voters’ lists” during his visit to Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma’s residence on January 13.
Organisational restructure
Beyond his role in the stepping up the party’s political messaging, Dotasra is also credited with revamping the Rajasthan Congress’s organisational structure through a pilot project aimed at boosting district-level leadership and improving coordination with grassroots-level workers.
“Earlier, we were dependent on the local MLA or leader to put together a team of party workers. As many district presidents and workers were not active participants in party meetings, it became imperative to make necessary amends in the organisational structure of the party, keeping the long-term benefits in mind,” state party spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi told The Indian Express.
As part of the organisational restructure, the party has increased the number of district units from 40 to 50, with appointments made after the All India Congress Committee (AICC) conducted surveys and collected feedback. Workers will now be organised across six levels, from booth to state and their contact details will be available in Jaipur. This move is said to have impressed the Congress leadership in New Delhi, which is now hoping to recreate this model in other states.
Besides their growing influence in the state Congress, caste dynamics also favour the two leaders. Dotasra is now among the most prominent Jat leaders in Rajasthan, with Rashtriya Loktantrik Party chief Hanuman Beniwal seeing his party go from three MLAs to none in the current Assembly. Congress sources claimed there had been a shift in Dalit and Jat votes towards the party, after initially going to the BJP in recent years, and this was down to the efforts of Jully and Dotasra.
While some senior state Congress leaders are said to be restless about their future amid the rise of these two leaders, the coming urban and rural local body elections, which are expected to be held by April, will put to test the ability of the two leaders to keep the party united.