Not Ashok Ghelot, the chief minister of Rajasthan from the Congress party. Not Vasundhara Raje, his adversary from BJP, a former chief minister. Not even Rahul Gandhi, the vice-president of the Congress party. Ahead of the assembly elections on December 1, the person who is on the lips of the tribal voters of Redvakalan under Reodar constituency is Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP.

“Our vote will go to Narendra Modi,” says Pabu Ram Koli, a teacher at primary school in the village.

Remind him that on December 1 he will be polling to elect a state government not the country's prime minister, Koli says, “It does not matter, we will vote for him and his party.”

People here associate Modi and his party with development and so they will vote for the BJP, he says. While Koli could be exaggerating the extent of Modi’s popularity, that Ashok Gehlot and his party are facing strong anti-incumbency is a certainty.    

“People are angry with Gehlot that in spite of ruling the state for ten long years (five in this term and five between 1998 and 2003) he has not done much for the people,” says Pinta Ram Garasia, a resident of the village. “The village does not have electricity or concrete roads. The ration shop never gives food on time,” he says.    

The popularity of the Gujarat chief minister, explains Pinta, is due to the difference in the development they see across the border (Gujarat is just a few kilo metres away from Revdakalan). “We have our relatives in Gujarat and we see how well they are doing whenever we visit them,” he says. 

 “Haath ka saath bahaut ho gaya, ab Kamal ki baari (We have had enough of the palm, the Congress election symbol, now it is the turn of the lotus, the BJP’s symbol),” says Baburam Garasia, another resident of the village.

Although the Reodar seat (of which Redvakalan is a tiny part) has gone to the BJP’s Jagasi Ram Koli for two consecutive terms, the tribals, who make 90 percent of the population of the village, have always stood by the Congress. Former prime minister Indira Gandhi and Congress’s symbol have had a strong resonance here over the years.  The neighbouring Abu-Pindwara assembly seat that has a strong tribal composition has been held by the Congress party Ganngaben Garasia for last two terms.

However this time the tribal voters seem eager to chart a different course. "We have been staunch supporters of the Congress party for so many years. But now we want to give the other party a chance,” Kalicharan Garasia, a farmer from the village. “We want to give Modi a chance”.