A TWO-TIME MLA, Avinash Gehlot has had a string of controversies since turning into a minister within the Rajasthan authorities a 12 months in the past – with even BJP leaders acknowledging that his newest, involving a reference to Indira Gandhi on the ground of the Meeting, might have been averted.
Final week, six Congress MLAs, together with its Rajasthan chief Govind Singh Dotasra, had been suspended from the Home for the remainder of the Price range Session resulting from their protests over the remarks. There aren’t any indicators of a thaw but, with the suspended MLAs who had refused to go away the nicely of the Home, having their meals and sleeping there, forcibly eliminated by the Marshals from the premises on Monday amidst a scuffle.
The Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, 43-year-old Gehlot sparked off the row on Friday final week when, throughout the Query Hour, he referred to Indira Gandhi as “aapki daadi (your grandmother)” whereas attacking the Opposition Benches. Chief of the Opposition Tika Ram Jully termed the minister’s phrases as “garbage” and demanded an apology from him.
A lot sloganeering and a number of adjournments later, Dotasra and others had been suspended from the Meeting, with the BJP alleging that the Congress MLAs got here “too shut” to Speaker Vasudev Devnani. The Congress, on its half, has questioned why Devnani has not even expunged Gehlot’s remarks.
City Growth Minister Jhabar Singh Kharra mentioned that Gehlot’s remarks had been “not unparliamentary or offensive”. Nevertheless, he added: “The occasion believes he shouldn’t have mentioned this within the Home.” As for the row, Kharra mentioned it must be settled as Gehlot has already apologised for it.
Gehlot, elected for the second time from Jaitaran in Pali within the December 2023 Meeting elections, was not a lot recognized throughout his first time period. Nevertheless, this has modified since he was made a minister after the BJP returned to energy. Whilst he was assuming cost as a minister in January final 12 months, Gehlot grabbed eyeballs for hanging photographs of RSS founder Ok B Hedgewar and M S Golwalkar in his workplace. In an interview then, he defended, “Since my childhood, I’ve grown up with this ideology. From the ABVP to the VHP, Bajrang Dal, Sangh, these are all in my blood.”
The affiliation with the RSS can also be seen as partially the rationale behind his appointment as a Cupboard minister into simply his second time period as an MLA.
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In Might final 12 months, he once more made it to the headlines when he mentioned the BJP authorities will evaluation reservations to Muslims beneath the OBC quota. “As a part of its appeasement politics, the Congress authorities gave reservation to 14 Muslim castes beneath the OBC class between 1997 and 2013. We now have all these circulars and, in due time, the division and the federal government will evaluation it,” he mentioned.
Gehlot added: “Babasaheb Ambedkar mentioned within the Structure that reservation can’t be granted to any caste, neighborhood or class on the idea of faith. So, when one thing is prohibited within the Structure… the reservation (on the idea of faith) is fallacious,” he mentioned, including that “numerous complaints” had been obtained by the federal government concerning this and was wanting on the similar.
Whereas there was no phrase on it from the minister since, the Rajasthan Excessive Court docket, in an unrelated case, dominated this month that an individual belonging to the Teli caste can’t be denied OBC reservation for merely being from the Muslim neighborhood.
Extra just lately, Gehlot left many pink faces within the BJP when, throughout a programme in Pali, as somebody handed him a slip, he joked that “our authorities itself is working with a parchi (chit)”.
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The Congress has thrown this cost on the Bhajan Lal Sharma authorities for the reason that begin, saying the Chief Minister and his authorities lack company and are run by the occasion’s central management by way of the “parchi system” – in a reference to the paper slip reportedly containing Sharma’s identify for CM shared on the final minute by the Centre after the Meeting elections.
Hailing from the OBC Mali neighborhood, like former Congress CM Ashok Gehlot, Avinash Gehlot gained his first election in 2018 when he defeated the Congress’s Dilip Choudhary by over 12,000 voters. He retained his seat in 2023 when he defeated Surendra Goyal of the Congress by over 13,000 votes.
A lawyer by occupation, Gehlot obtained related to the BJP first by its college students’ wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). In 2013, he was related to the occasion’s media cell in Pali and in 2014, grew to become a member of state government of the BJYM. In 2019, he was related to the occasion’s Lok Sabha marketing campaign in Rajsamand.
