Gehlot govt minister to former Pilot aide: Congress hit by Rajasthan exodus

On Sunday, over two dozen leaders in Rajasthan, chiefly from the Congress, joined the BJP, giving a jolt to the grand old party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The new members were inducted into the BJP in Jaipur in the presence of Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma and state BJP chief C P Joshi, among others.

Among those joining are several former ministers and MLAs. Since the Congress’s defeat in the Assembly polls last year, several high-profile leaders have migrated over to the ruling BJP. Already, the BJP’s first list of 15 candidates for Rajasthan includes two former Congress leaders who joined the BJP recently – tribal leader and former state Cabinet minister Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya and former Lok Sabha MPJyoti Mirdha. It remains to be seen if any of the new members will be accommodated in the BJP candidates list for the Lok Sabha, with 10 more to be announced for Rajasthan’s 25 total seats.

Here are the notable names among the exits:

A former Union minister, Kataria was also in the previous Ashok Gehlot government’s Cabinet as the minister for agriculture.

A long-time Congress worker, Kataria started out as an Indian Youth Congress leader in rural Jaipur. He was first elected as an MLA in 2003 from Amber. He lost the 2008 Assembly election from Jhotwara but managed to win the Lok Sabha poll in 2009, when he defeated the BJP’s Rao Rajendra Singh from Jaipur Rural. In late 2012, he was made a Minister of State (MoS) for rural development in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet.

He won his next election only in 2018, when he defeated the BJP’s Rajpal Singh Shekhawat in the Jhotwara Assembly seat. He was then made the state Cabinet minister for agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries.

In May 2019, Kataria had reportedly