New Delhi: Former Union minister and Olympic medalist in shooting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the Jhotwara seat, defeating his closest rival, Abhishek Choudhary of Congress, by a margin of 50,167 votes.
Rathore secured a total 1,47,913 votes. The BJP leader was pitted against party rebel Ashu Singh Surpura, who was contesting as an Independent, after being denied ticket by the BJP. Surpura came in third, with 55,159 votes.
In Jhotwara, the BJP also denied ticket to former MLA Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, who won from this constituency in 2008 and 2013 assembly elections, but lost to the Congress’s Lalchand Kataria in 2018. While Shekhawat too had initially rebelled against the party decision, according to party sources, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was able to bring him back to the party fold.
The BJP decision to field Rajput leader Rathore — and erstwhile Jaipur royal Diya Kumari — is being seen as an attempt to woo Rajput voters in the state, especially the women and youth segments in the community.
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Rise as a BJP leader
The run-up to the elections have not been smooth for the former Union minister, with party cadre showing resistance to his candidature. During campaigning in Jhotwara in October, supporters of former MLA Shekhawat showed black flags to the leader.
Undeterred, Rathore went on to distribute sweets to the protesting cadre and told the media he pledged to serve the constituency “as a [former] Army officer, Olympian, and a member of Team Modi”.
Rathore joined the BJP in 2013, after retiring as a colonel in the Army. He won his first Lok Sabha election the following year, defeating the Congress’s C.P.Joshi.
He was later inducted as Union minister of information in the first Modi government. He was, however, dropped as a minister in the second Modi government which came to power in 2019.
A second-generation army officer, Rathore was attached to the Jaipur-based 9 Grenadiers, which was once reportedly commanded by his father, Colonel (retd) Lakshman Singh Rathore.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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