JAIPUR: No Speaker of the assembly except Kailash Meghwal in recent history has broken the jinx of losing the subsequent election.
Meghwal was the Speaker from 2013 to 2018 and won his Shahpura (Bhilwara) seat with a huge margin of over 74,542 votes last time and broke the jinx. However, no other speaker was able to achieve that feat.
It is interesting to see if present Speaker CP Joshi could repeat the same feat from Nathdwara.Joshi is challenged by erstwhile Mewar royal Vishwaraj Singh. It is also a fight between a veteran and a greenhorn. Two former speakers, Meghwal himself and his predecessor Deependra Singh Shekhawat are in the fray. Nonagenarian Meghwal is fighting from his traditional stronghold Shapura as a BJP rebel after being denied the party ticket and Shekhawat from Sri Madhopur in Sikar district.
Meghwal also bucked another trend. The winner of the Shahpura seat has always sat on the treasury benches in the Rajasthan legislative assembly since 1952.
Meghwal, who won the seat would have been happy to be on the ruling side, but his party could not retain power and Congress formed the government.
The voters have been very uncharitable to speakers. Take the case of Sumitra Singh, who was the Speaker during the last BJP government. Sumitra Singh, who won for an unprecedented nine out of 12 terms from Jhunjhunu, seven times in a row for the Congress was later forced to leave the party after the Congress denied her ticket. She won the 1998 election as an Independent before joining the BJP and scripted history in 2003 by becoming the first woman speaker of the Rajasthan Assembly.
Sumita Singh, who contested as a BJP candidate in the 2008 Assembly election from Mandawa ended up fourth with only 13,462 votes in her favour. She was the Speaker of Assembly from 2003 to 2008. But she was defeated in the last assembly elections.
Similarly, a BJP veteran and heavyweight, Hari Shankar Bhabhra also suffered a massive defeat at Ratangarh constituency in Churu district. A three-time MLA from Ratnagarh, Bhabhra was defeated in 1998 assembly polls from Ratangarh by Jai Dev Indoria of the Congress.
Meghwal was the Speaker from 2013 to 2018 and won his Shahpura (Bhilwara) seat with a huge margin of over 74,542 votes last time and broke the jinx. However, no other speaker was able to achieve that feat.
It is interesting to see if present Speaker CP Joshi could repeat the same feat from Nathdwara.Joshi is challenged by erstwhile Mewar royal Vishwaraj Singh. It is also a fight between a veteran and a greenhorn. Two former speakers, Meghwal himself and his predecessor Deependra Singh Shekhawat are in the fray. Nonagenarian Meghwal is fighting from his traditional stronghold Shapura as a BJP rebel after being denied the party ticket and Shekhawat from Sri Madhopur in Sikar district.
Meghwal also bucked another trend. The winner of the Shahpura seat has always sat on the treasury benches in the Rajasthan legislative assembly since 1952.
Meghwal, who won the seat would have been happy to be on the ruling side, but his party could not retain power and Congress formed the government.
The voters have been very uncharitable to speakers. Take the case of Sumitra Singh, who was the Speaker during the last BJP government. Sumitra Singh, who won for an unprecedented nine out of 12 terms from Jhunjhunu, seven times in a row for the Congress was later forced to leave the party after the Congress denied her ticket. She won the 1998 election as an Independent before joining the BJP and scripted history in 2003 by becoming the first woman speaker of the Rajasthan Assembly.
Sumita Singh, who contested as a BJP candidate in the 2008 Assembly election from Mandawa ended up fourth with only 13,462 votes in her favour. She was the Speaker of Assembly from 2003 to 2008. But she was defeated in the last assembly elections.
Similarly, a BJP veteran and heavyweight, Hari Shankar Bhabhra also suffered a massive defeat at Ratangarh constituency in Churu district. A three-time MLA from Ratnagarh, Bhabhra was defeated in 1998 assembly polls from Ratangarh by Jai Dev Indoria of the Congress.
