Ravindra Singh Bhati, Independent MLA from Sheo in Barmer, is all set to launch a yatra demanding political representation for upper castes through the quota for the Economically Weaker Sections. Raising the bogey of political reservation – ahead of the coming the panchayat polls – it could rewrite the political maths for a state that has been deeply divided along caste lines.
His second runner-up was also an Independent – Fateh Khan – and the BJP and the Congress trailed them. The Congress by 24,231 votes and the BJP fared even worse. The BJP candidate was 56,675 votes behind Bhati. He was behind the Congress candidate by 1 lakh-plus votes and way ahead of the BJP candidate and sitting minister Kailash Chaudhary by 2.99 lakh votes
“We also want the government to have the same rules at the state and the Centre for the EWS. By adopting the central law in February 2019 and actively stripping away complex property and land constraints in October 2019, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot effectively tried to target this voter segment, but subsequently the BJP also made it an election plank in Rajasthan, asserting that it was the 103rd amendment by the Narendra Modi government that helped it secure reservation for upper castes and pitched before the Lok Sabha elections of 2019. It helped the BJP win 24 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
“Political representation is just one aspect of the yatra,” said Bhati. The criteria at the Centre does not take into account different conditions in the state,” he said.
“Om ignoriya namah. I just ignore those kind of comments. “At the Jodhpur university, the most prestigious for students from all over Marwar, I developed a close connect with youth of that region, especially during the Covid years…
I started my career in politics as the university president at Jodhpur University from 2019 to 2022. I have fought the assembly elections as the youngest candidate and the Lok Sabha elections where I polled more than 5 lakh votes and I have been closely connected with and built my network of youth supporters from my university days,” he said.
“These facts speak for themselves,” Bhati said. Those years gave me a close and lifelong connection that has helped me politically,” he said.
