Jaipur: BJP has appointed Rajya Sabha MP Madan Rathore as the state president, replacing C P Joshi who offered his resignation after meeting the top brass in Delhi.
Madan Rathore, 69, comes from the RSS stock, hails from Pali and would be the OBC face of the party. He hails from the Ghanchi caste, which is mostly found in Gujarat and Rajasthan. BJP’s focus this time is on the OBC vote bank, which influences at least 82 Assembly seats in the state. OBCs have been demanding an increase in their reservation from 21 per cent to 27 per cent for a while now. The OBC population in Rajasthan is just over 50 per cent. Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had talked about a caste census and raising the OBC quota also earmarked an additional 6 per cent for the most backward classes within the OBC.
Rathore has been a two-time MLA from Sumerpur in Pali district and was the deputy chief whip in the House during the tenure of Vasundhara Raje from 2013 to 2018. He is an organisational man and is said to be close to Prime Minister Modi and has worked with many leaders. But he was refused a ticket during the Vidhan Sabha elections in November 2023. Modi is said to have telephoned him then asking him to keep working. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha five months back. Political sources say he lobbied with the Gujarat BJP leaders, which may have worked in his favour.
The state BJP had till now Brahmins holding the top two posts of Chief Minister and party president. Both Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma and state president C P Joshi are from the Brahmin community.
Rathore is someone who is considered to be a unifying leader and is expected to take along all the different factions in the party. Rathore was active in the Barmer seat during the Lok Sabha elections and had arranged Prime Minister Modi’s rallies. However, BJP lost the Barmer seat to Congress.
Joshi had offered his resignation earlier also after the BJP lost 11 seats in the Lok Sabha, winning only 14 out of the 25. This was a major setback in a BJP-stronghold state, considering it had made clean sweeps in 2014 and 2019.
The change has been affected keeping in view the upcoming by-elections in the state and municipal and panchayat elections.
Rajya Sabha MP Radha Mohan Das Agarwal is going to replace Arun Singh as state incharge and Vijaya Rahatkar has been appointed as the deputy incharge of the state.
After accepting the big responsibility, Rathore said he is a dedicated soldier of the party and a soldier has no personal ambitions, he fights from whichever position he is instructed to and always tries to give his best. He says he will work to strengthen the party from all bases and would try to create a balance between organisation and the government. And he talked about winning all the upcoming five by-elections which includes Dausa, Uniyara, Jhunjhunu, Khimsvar and Chorasi.