Oldest MLA on Pilot’s side, Bhanwarlal Sharma, has made attempts to topple govt earlier too

Jaipur: Bhanwarlal Sharma (75), the oldest lawmaker within the Rajasthan meeting, has sided with insurgent Congress chief and former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot amid the facility tussle with CM Ashok Gehlot.

Currently, he’s holed up at ITC Grand Bharat Hotel in Haryana that has emerged as a playground for political parleys.

In a recorded assertion, Sharma, who isn’t any stranger to taking part in kingmaker and toppling democratically elected governments in his residence state Rajasthan, has spoken towards CM Ashok Gehlot and has thrown his lot behind challenger Pilot.

Sharma, a seven-time member of Rajasthan legislative meeting (MLA), of which 4 instances on a Congress ticket, is concerned in two bids, together with the present one towards CM Gehlot, to topple democratically elected state governments.

Political commentators reminded the flip-flop of Sharma, a Congress MLA from Sardarshahar in Churu district, via his chequered political profession.

Earlier, he had unsuccessfully tried to dislodge the then Bhairon Singh Shekhawat-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) authorities in 1996, when the CM was away within the United States of America (USA) for bypass surgical procedure.

Sharma, nevertheless, had emerged as an ally to Shekhawat 1992, and helped him save the fledgling BJP authorities within the desert state after the ally Janata Dal give up the coalition in a huff over Lal Krishna Advani’s rath yatra to drum up help for constructing a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.

In 1993, Shekhawat-led BJP authorities got here to energy, which loved the help of 116 lawmakers, together with Janata Dal and Independent MLAs, within the 200-member Rajasthan meeting.

In 1996, Sharma hatched a plot with some Independent MLAs to topple the BJP authorities, whereas Shekhawat was away within the USA for bypass surgical procedure.

As luck would have it, Sharma’s machinations got here to be recognized to Shekhawat’s son-in-law Narpat Singh Rajvi within the USA, and the then CM rushed again to Jaipur to save lots of his authorities from an imminent collapse.

Prakash Bhandari, a Jaipur-based political commentator, recalled that Shekhawat had gone in a huddle together with his MLAs at Chokhi Dhani, a preferred resort on the outskirts of Jaipur, for a report 15 days earlier than

proving his majority on the ground of the House.

“Sharma was part of the group that had saved Shekhawat’s government in 1992, when the Janata Dal had withdrawn its support following Lal Krishna Advani’s rath yatra,” Bhandari reminisced.

In the 1990 meeting polls, the BJP and the Janata Dal had bagged 85 and 54 seats, respectively, and stitched collectively a coalition authorities beneath Shekhawat’s management.

But the Advani-led rath yatra broke the coalition’s again and 7 Janata Dal ministers give up the Shekhawat authorities and decreased it to a minority.

Then, Digvijay Singh fashioned a splinter Janata Dal group with 22 MLAs, together with Sharma, and got here to Shekhawat’s rescue.

Sharma was rewarded and made a cupboard minister from the splinter group’s quota.

In January 2014, he had spoken towards the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi and was expelled from the get together, however later the disciplinary motion was revoked.

Later, he obtained a Congress ticket to contest from Sardarshahar constituency for the 2018 meeting polls and gained with a cushty margin for his seventh time period as an MLA.

Sharma was not out there for remark, as his cell phone is switched off since Saturday amid the unfolding political drama over the Gehlot authorities’s destiny.