Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Jodhpur MP and BJP candidate Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is old RSS hand, impressive orator

It had been a meteoric rise for Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, 51, who got elected as an MP for the first time in 2014 and then was inducted in the central council of ministers in 2017.

Shekhawat, who started his political career as a student, won the Lok Sabha election in 2014 with the highest margin of over four lakh votes in Rajasthan. Earlier, he was a businessman and actively associated with the RSS.

Showing his oratory skills in the parliamentary debates, he soon became the choice of the party high command and made the minister of state in the midterm. He has been given the party ticket again from Jodhpur.

He says during PM Modi’s tenure, railway and highway infrastructure improved in the Jodhpur region. When Shekhawat won, there were seven BJP MLAS in the eight assembly constituencies under the parliamentary area, but in the 2018 assembly elections, only two of the eight seats were won by the BJP candidates. With the loss of BJP’s three Rajput candidates in the parliamentary constituency, Jodhpur’s identity has once again become the hometown of chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

It is well-known that political relations between Shekhawat and former chief minister Vasundhara Raje were not good during her five-year tenure. However, BJP office-bearers, on the condition of anonymity, say that due to lack of support from the then CM, the MP may not have brought big projects to the region, “but no one can question his active participation in the parliamentary area”.

Shekhawat also shares his views with more than 80,000 followers on Knowledge Sharing Platform Quora.

He has direct contact with youth workers and expects that youth will stand with him in this election also.

Congress candidate from Jodhpur parliamentary constituency, Vaibhav Gehlot, said Jodhpur was neglected during the tenure of the central and state BJP government in the last five years. “No major work was done in the field of infrastructure, while many places in Jodhpur required railway overbridge and underpass. Nobody cared about the scarcity of drinking water in rural areas.” He said that now there is a Congress government in the state which will make all efforts to resolve the problems of the people.

Also Read | Could have done more for drinking water, says Jodhpur MP Shekhawat

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