Sun rises in the east and this son of East (Bharatpur) rises to become the chief minister of Rajasthan. Defying all the logics of social engineering, Bhajan Lal Sharma became the first Brahmin face of BJP to annexe the top post. Incidentally, he accomplished this in his first attempt at electoral politics on BJP ticket. In 2003, he contested election from Nadbai on ticket of Samajik Nyay Manch, a political party founded by Lokendra Singh Kalvi and Devi Singh Bhati, and lost his deposit.
Moving away 200 kms from his native place Bharatpur – the eastern door of Rajasthan – Sharma chose Jaipur's Sanganer constituency to contest his first elections. When his ticket was announced, he had to face lot of opposition from the sitting BJP MLA Ashok Lahoty and other contenders who tagged him as an outsider. But with the backing of RSS and party, he outsmarted all the opposition and merged victorious by over 48,000 votes.
Never had he dreamt that his maiden victory will take him to the chief ministerial post where heavyweights like Vasundhara Raje, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Kirodi Lal Meena and many other senior legislators were in contention.
But his loyalty towards party, great organisational skills and deep roots in RSS brought him to the hot seat. He had been state general secretary of BJP for four times.
A post graduate in political science, Sharma knows the nuance of politics very well. His father Kishan Swaroop Sharma said that he had never dreamt of him becoming the CM of Rajasthan.
“I am proud of my son. He will serve the state to the best of his ability with all the honesty and hardwork,” he told The BuckStopper.
The BuckStopper, run by a group of seasoned journalists, holds the powerful accountable. The buck stops with them, as they cannot shrug off their official responsibilities.
