A viral video on social media shows Vasundhara Raje, former BJP chief minister of Rajasthan, at a party legislature meeting in Jaipur. Sitting next to union minister Rajnath Singh, the party observer for Rajasthan, she opens a slip of paper that he hands to her.
Raje looks taken aback by its contents — the script of which was written in Delhi. That piece of paper allegedly had the name of Rajasthan’s new CM, Bhajan Lal Sharma, announced by the party on December 12. Raje proposed his name at this meeting, and then accompanied Sharma and other senior leaders to meet governor Kalraj Mishra and stake claim to form the government.
Sharma, 56, is a first-time MLA who won from Sanganer constituency in Jaipur by 48,081 votes. He’s the second Brahmin CM in Rajasthan in 33 years after Congress’s Haridev Joshi. He will have two deputies – Diya Kumar, a Rajput, and Prerchand Bairwa, a Dalit – while Vasudev Devnani will be speaker.
Before his candidature from Sanganer, Sharma was a familiar face at press conferences, often introducing speakers or checking arrangements. Chosen as the state BJP’s general secretary for the fourth time before the assembly polls, he would hold meetings across the state, and also oversaw arrangements of public meetings for Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Before his candidature from Sanganer, Sharma was a familiar face at press conferences, often introducing speakers or checking arrangements. Chosen as the state BJP’s general secretary for the fourth time before the assembly polls, he would hold meetings across the state, and also oversaw arrangements of public meetings for Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Milkman to sarpanch
Born in Atari village in Bharatpur district, Sharma is described as a “simple and righteous” man by friends and party colleagues. He’s the only son and his father, Kishan Swaroop Sharma, is a farmer who owns 25 bighas of land in Atari.
A day before counting of votes, Sharma visited Atari and sought blessings from elders, said Om Prakash Jatav, a farmer in the village.
Sharma’s schooling took place in Atari and Gangwana villages and Nanbai tehsil, all in Bharatpur. A note shared by the BJP with journalists said, “After completing his primary education in Atari, he came to Nadbai for secondary education and got in touch with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.” The ABVP is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Schooling done, Sharma enrolled in MSJ College in Bharatpur and graduated in 1989. He was already a BJP member at this point – according to Rakesh Sharma, president of Nanbai BJP (rural), he and Bhajan Lal had joined the party in 1984.
The family depended on agriculture and milk for their livelihood. After Bhajan Lal finished college, he helped out.
“He would collect milk from his village and sell it to a dairy in Bharatpur,” said his uncle Maniram Sharma, a retired teacher in Atari. “This continued for seven or eight years until he was given bigger responsibilities by the BJP.”
In 1990, Bhajan Lal took part in a “Kashmir march”. He went to Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir and courted arrest with 100 BJP workers. He was also jailed for participating in the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation in 1992.
In the early 1990s, he served with the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in Bharatpur in various capacities. He got on well with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who was then the state president of the BJYM. Bhajan Lal, as district president of the BJYM in Bharatpur, would campaign with Birla during elections and take on organisational work for the party.
At this time, Sharma would also often travel to Kota, where Birla lived.
“At the time, I was posted at a school in Kota,” said his uncle Maniram. “He would come to the city and stay with me. In the morning, he would leave for Om Birla’s house. Bhajan Lal and Om Birla would campaign together during the assembly elections.”
First tryst with elections
In 2000, Sharma contested his first election – a panchayat poll. He won, and became sarpanch of Atari gram sabha. Three years later, the BJP denied him a ticket from Nadbai during the assembly polls. So, Sharma quit and fought on the lock-and-key symbol of a new party, the Rajasthan Samajik Nyay Manch, which had been floated by Devi Singh Bhati and Lokendra Singh Kalvi.
“He did not tell us that he was denied a ticket by the BJP,” Bhati, a seven-time MLA from Bikaner’s Kolayat, told Newslaundry. “But he did say this to me: ‘Since reservation is the goal of the party, I will fight this battle.’” The RSNM’s main poll plank then was reservation for economically weaker sections.
The Nadbai seat was eventually won by an independent candidate named Krishnendra Kaur. The BJP candidate came fourth with 13,949 votes and Sharma came fifth with 5,969 votes. The RSNM won only one seat in the polls. Bhati, considered a Raje loyalist, rejoined the BJP this September. This election, his grandson Anshuman Singh Bhati won from Kolayat in Bikaner on a BJP ticket.