The first-time MLA Bhajan Lal Sharma is the new Chief Minister of Rajasthan. His name was announced after the newly-elected BJP MLAs met in Jaipur on December 12, where the 56-year-old debutant MLA was elected as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party.
Just ahead of this meeting, a group photo of the party MLAs was taken, in which Sharma is seen standing in the last row. Hours later, he was catapulted to the centre stage of state politics, entrusted by the BJP with the task to helm its new government.
Sharma’s name had earlier not come up for consideration among the BJP’s probable faces for the top post, with a slew of party leaders – including two-time CM Vasundhara Raje, senior state leader Satish Poonia, and Union Ministers, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Arjun Ram Meghwal – being considered to be in the race for the CM’s chair.
A native of Bharatpur district, Sharma contested the recent Assembly election from the Sanganer constituency in Jaipur, where he defeated Congress candidate Pushpendra Bhardwaj by more than 48,000 votes.
Known in BJP circles as an organisation man, Sharma is currently the state BJP general secretary in charge of the party headquarters in Jaipur.
According to the educational qualification mentioned in his election affidavit, Sharma has an MA in political science from the University of Rajasthan.
Sharma has strong ties with the RSS and started his political innings as a member of the Sangh’s students wing ABVP.
Born in Atari village of Bharatpur’s Nadbai, Sharma has come in touch with the ABVP while studying in a school. Later, he became the district co-convener of the ABVP in Bharatpur and also its co-zila pramukh there.
In 1990, Sharma had taken part in the ABVP’s march to Srinagar to protest attacks on Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, and had courted arrest in Jammu’s Udhampur along with its many other members. Later, Sharma also went to jail during the agitation for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, according to state BJP sources.
In early 1990s, Sharma started working with the BJP’s youth wing BJYM. He had been the BJYM district president thrice. J P Nadda, the current party national chief, was then the BJYM national president, sources said.
Sharma became a sarpanch for the first time at the age of 27 and remained a sarpanch for two consecutive times. He had also been a Panchayat Samiti member, sources said.
He was appointed as the BJP district secretary after working with the BJYM for several years.
Sharma had unsuccessfully contested the 2003 Assembly election from the Nadbai constituency in Bharatpur on the Rajasthan Samajik Nyay Manch (RSNM)’s ticket and finished fifth, getting just over 5,900 votes and 6.28% vote share.
The RSNM was a political outfit floated by BJP leader Devi Singh Bhati who at the time had quit the party and was trying to establish his outfit as a third force in Rajasthan.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was an observer for the BJP Legislature Party meeting, said that Vasundhara Raje proposed Sharma’s name as its leader, which was endorsed by other party legislators.
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