Out in the cold in BJP, a Rajasthan MP finds home in Congress: Who is Rahul Kaswan?

More than a week after the BJP dropped him from the Churu Lok Sabha seat and fielded Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia, the BJP’s incumbent MP Rahul Kaswan joined the Congress in Delhi on Monday. Hours before joining, he announced his resignation from the BJP’s primary membership and the Lok Sabha. He is now expected to get the Congress ticket from Churu.

After Hisar MP Brijendra Singh left the BJP to join the Congress on Sunday, Kaswan’s move gives some respite to the Opposition party that has been left reeling by scores of defections in the past few weeks. In Rajasthan itself, it has lost sitting MLA and Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, former Union Minister Lalchand Kataria, and former Minister of State (Home) in Ashok Gehlot government Rajendra Yadav, among several others.

Kaswan joined the Congress in Delhi in the presence of party president Mallikarjun Kharge, the party’s state in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, state president Govind Singh Dotasra, and Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly Tika Ram Jully. After joining the BJP, Kaswan said he was following the wishes of the people of Churu and joining the Congress and attacked the growing “feudal mindset” of the ruling party at the cost of farmers’ voices. He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving him the opportunity to be the Churu Lok Sabha MP for two years.

Kaswan’s decision to join the Congress comes in the backdrop of BJP’s Churu veteran Rajendra Rathore losing an Assembly election last year after winning consecutively for seven terms and launching a not-so-veiled attack on him over the loss. Rathore’s last Assembly election loss before that had been in 1985 when contesting as a Janata Party candidate in