The Hindu : Elder BJP veterans fail to make it in Rajasthan

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Sunday, Dec 07, 2003

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Elder BJP veterans fail to make it in Rajasthan

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR DEC. 6. It may be an irony of sorts that when the Bharatiya Janata Party could romp home in as many as 120 constituencies after fighting from 197 in the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, party veterans such as Harishankar Bhabhra and Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi could not make it.

Both Mr. Bhabhra and Mr. Chaturvedi share something when it comes to the president of the State BJP and Chief Minister-designate, Vasundhara Raje. Mr. Bhabhra was the first BJP leader in the State to challenge the anointment of Ms. Raje as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. In contrast, Mr. Chaturvedi, a former party president, was one of the few party leaders in the State who had supported her from the outset.

Another senior Raje detractor, Ghanshyam Tiwari, has won the election from the Jaipur suburb seat of Sanganer defeating the former Congress Minister, Indira Mayaram, by a margin of over 33,000 votes.

Mr. Bhabhra, former Deputy Chief Minister, who fought the election from his traditional seat, Rattangarh in Churu district, lost to a Congress rebel, Raj Kumar Rinwa, by a margin of 1,507 votes. The sitting Congress MLA, Jaidev Prasad Indoria, finished third in the race.

Mr. Chaturvedi, once known as the undisputed leader of Hadauti region in south-west Rajasthan, had this time opted for the Digod seat leaving out his traditional constituency, Kota, where he was defeated by the Congress firebrand Minister, Shanti Dhariwal, in 1998 by a margin of over 24,000 votes.

As fate would have it, while Mr. Dhariwal himself lost to a BJP newcomer, Om Birla, by a margin of 10,101 votes this time, defeat followed Mr. Chaturvedi to Digod where he lost to the Congress nominee, Bharat Singh, by a margin of 10,747 votes.

Kota constituency had been represented by Mr. Chaturvedi in the past from 1977 to 1993 without a break. Digod is one seat the Congress has not won since 1972. As such Bharat Singh is not from Digod and was once an MLA from Khanpur in the neighbouring Jhalawar district.

As the BJP crossed the magic number of 100 seats in the Rajasthan Assembly for the first time leaving only 56 seats to the Congress and the rest of the 24 seats to Independents and others, most of its senior leaders have found a place for themselves in the House. The Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Assembly, Gulab Chand Kataria, won from Udaipur while the former Speaker, Shantilal Chaplot, got elected from Mavli.

Another former Speaker during the previous BJP Government in the State, Samrath Lal Meena, has been elected from Rajgarh in Alwar.

However, Tara Bhandari, former Deputy Speaker who fought on the BJP ticket, could not make it as the Congress nominee, Sanyam Lodha, retained the Sirohi seat.

Close associates of Ms. Raje such as Narpat Singh Rajvi, son-in-law of the Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and the former Minister, Rajendra Rathore, have won.

Mr. Rathore retained his Churu seat defeating the Congress newcomer Hussain Syed, while Mr. Rajvi won from the prestigious Chittorgarh seat defeating the sitting Congress MLA, Surendra Jadawat.

Political observers here are of the view that the defeat of Mr. Bhabhra and Mr. Chaturvedi perhaps has come as a blessing to Ms. Raje, who would not have to put up with the older generation leaders from her party in the Assembly.

At the same time there are experienced MLAs for Ms. Raje to pick up from when she forms her Council of Ministers as senior politicians who were Ministers in the Congress Governments in the past such as Gangaram Choudhary and Sumitra Singh too have won from their constituencies after joining the BJP before the elections.

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