Raj Ghat ‘chowkidar’ in poll fray from Gurgaon

Jai Kawar Tyagi—a chowkidar (guard) at the Raj Ghat, Mahatma Gandhi’s final resting place, and an army man for almost two decades— became the first candidate to file his nomination from the Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency on Tuesday.

“While serving at the Mahatma’s Samadhi, I was motivated to think about improving the lot of the society and the nation. After serving for 19 years at the Samadhi and in the army I realized that one had to enter the system to change it. I save money from my pension for five years to fight the election,” said Tyagi, who is a candidate of the newly formed Daksh party that had applied for registration in 2018.

The 64-year-old said that while he was at the national monument, he experienced how governance was the same under the BJP and Congress and other parties, and that corruption and nepotism was the root cause of every ill.

“I am a simple man who lives in the village and has seen how much unemployment and corruption has destroyed the youth and the society. I want to stop all this,” Tyagi said. He added that both BJP and Congress were same and they were reducing jobs in the government while promoting privatization.

The district administration said that Tyagi was the only candidate to file the nomination form for Gurgaon on Tuesday.

Gurugram deputy commissioner Amit Khatri, who accepted Tyagi’s nomination papers, said that forms will not be accepted on April 17 as it is public holiday and also on April 21, which is a Sunday. He said that the entire process of filing nominations is being videographed and asked all stakeholder to follow the norms.

On Monday, Congress Gurgaon candidate Ajay Yadav had said that he would file his nomination on April 18, whereas sitting BJP MP Rao Inderjit Singh said he would file his nomination on the subsequent day.