Rajasthan polls: Beniwal releases first list of RLP candidates, may upset BJP-Cong arithmetic

Polling in Rajasthan is due on November 25. The counting of votes will be be done on December 3.

Jaipur: Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), headed by Jat leader Hanuman Beniwal, on Saturday released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections.  

The list of 10 candidates includes Beniwal, who is going to contest from Khinwsar in Nagaur district. Beniwal, 51, is the current MP from Nagaur. 

RLP’s two sitting MLAs Pukhraj Garg from Bhopalgarh (SC) constituency in Jodhpur district and Indira Bawri from Merta (SC) constituency in Nagaur district have been given the tickets from the same constituencies. 

Others in the list include Nacharam Badarra from Parbatsar ( Nagaur), Badrilal Jat from Sahada (Bhilwara), Rewatram Pavar from Kolayat (Bikaner), Umaidaram Beniwal from Baytoo (Barmer), Lalchand Mund from Saradarshahar (Churu), Mahesh Saini from Sanganer (Jaipur) and Dr Ajay Trivedi from Jodhpur (Jodhpur).

Beniwal, the RLP supremo, has replaced his brother and sitting MLA Narayan Beniwal from Khinwsar.

Beniwal, a firebrand Jat leader who formed RLP in 2018, a month before the Assembly elections then, not only retained his seat Khinwsar but also managed to win two more seats in Bhopalgarh and Merta. It had put up 58 candidates in the 2018 elections. It had managed to garner 2.4 per cent vote share and upset the Congress and BJP arithmetic in many constituencies including three in Barmer.

RLP was able to leave an impact in at least 20 Assembly constituencies where their candidate came in  third. In Barmer’s Baytoo constituency, Umaidaram Beniwal came second losing out to Congress’ Harish Choudhury by over 13,000 votes. Umaidaram got about 21.80 per cent vote share. In Barmer’s other Assembly constituencies, Sheo, Chohtan and Pachpadra, RLP cut into the votes of BJP, making them come second behind Congress. 

Beniwal, who is popular amongst Jats, especially youths and famers, poses his party RLP as an alternative to both BJP and Congress. 

Beniwal hails from a political family  as his father Ramdev Beniwal was a two-term MLA from Mundwa constituency in Nagaur in 1977 and 1985. His father was a Congress member in 1977 and later of Lokdal Party in 1985. 

With politics running in his blood, Beniwal jumped into student politics and became Rajasthan University’s president by winning the students' elections in 1997. He first joined Indian National Lokdal, helmed by Omprakash Chautala in 2003, and came a close second from Mundwa constituency. In 2004, he was elected to the Nagaur Zilla Parishad by a record margin.

In 2008, he became a BJP MLA from Khinwsar constituency garnering 45.32 per cent votes. In 2013, after he parted ways with the BJP, he won Khinwsar again as an Independent with 41.66 per cent vote share. He had a tiff with Vasundhara Raje after he levelled corruption charges against her. 

In 2018, he repeated his win from Khinwsar as RLP candidate with 44.65 per cent vote share. Beniwal’s sway in the Jat belt cost BJP dearly in 2018. 

So in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP wanted an alliance with RLP and left one seat for RLP, which Beniwal won convincingly. Later in the Khinwsar Assembly bypoll, where his brother Narayan Beniwal contested and won, he accused Raje and her loyalists of helping the Congress candidate.

He seemed to have upset two-party poll dynamics in Rajasthan after he formed the RLP in 2018. Beniwal says he has the backing of the Jats, Meghwals, Muslims, Yadavs and Kumawats. Hailing from a farmer’s family, he is said to have fought for their rights, loan waivers, and free electricity. His Kisan Hunkar rallies in different districts of Barmer, Jaipur, Sikar, Nagaur, Bikaner have been very popular, drawing huge crowds.

Beniwal supported the farmers' agitation against the three farm laws enacted then by resigning from three Parliamentary committees of which he was a member.