Six-time MLA Ramnivas Rawat was inducted into the Mohan Yadav-led Madhya Pradesh government Cabinet on Monday (July 8), weeks after he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in April this year during the Lok Sabha Elections. Known as a powerful OBC leader, Rawat represented the Vijaypur Assembly constituency six times on the Congress ticket in 1990, 1993, 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2023. He was defeated by BJP’s Babulal Mewra in 1998 by over 6,000 votes and in the 2018 Assembly polls by BJP candidate Seetaram with a margin of 2,840 votes.
However, he was re-elected from the seat in last year’s state elections in which the BJP retained power with a huge majority, winning 163 out of the 230 seats. The Congress was restricted to only 66 seats.
Why did Rawat switch sides?
After the drubbing in the Assembly elections, State Congress president Kamal Nath stepped down from the post and two-time 50-year-old Jitu Patwari, who himself had lost the polls, replaced the senior Congress leader as the party chief in the state.
Rawat, one of the senior-most leaders in the state Congress, was neither considered for the top post in the state unit of the party, nor made the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly. It is speculated in the political circles that miffed with the party’s move, he made the switch just a week ahead of the voting in four seats of the Gwalior-Chambal region on May 7.
Why is Ramnivas Rawat important for the BJP?
Rawat is considered a strong OBC leader who has significant hold in the Gwalior-Chambal region of the state. It is also said that his induction into the BJP turned the tides in the favour of the party in the four seats of the region in the Lok Sabha Elections, thus propelling it to sweep the state with all 29 parliamentary seats.
Rawat also served as Minister of State under Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh from 1993 to 1998 and again as Madhya Pradesh Cabinet Minister in 1998.
On Monday (July 8), he was the only leader to be inducted into the Madhya Pradesh Cabinet.
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