Sahara MLA LadulalPitliya
Credit: X/@LadulalPitliya
Belagavi: A textile merchant who once lived in Bengaluru’s Rajajinagar and has his family business located at Chickpet is now the BJP MLA of the Sahara constituency in Rajasthan.
Ladulal Pitliya, 52, registered a thumping victory from Sahara, winning 1.17 lakh votes against Congress’ Rajendra Trivedi who got 54,684 votes.
“Rajajinagar has two MLAs now. One present, one absent,” Rajajinagar BJP MLA S Suresh Kumar joked.
According to Kumar, Pitliya once resided in Juganahalli in Rajajinagar 2nd block. “He has a huge house there. He’s into the textile business, which his children are running in Chickpet,” he said.
In the 2018 Rajasthan election, Pitliya contested as an independent candidate, which proved to be a problem for the BJP. “I remember visiting his house here to convince him. He did not agree,” Kumar recalled. In that election, Pitliya polled 30,573 votes, invariably helping the Congress candidate win.
According to his affidavit, Pitliya has several bank accounts in Bengaluru, especially in Chickpet branches.