Jaipur: Hanuman Chaudhary was manager at a resort on the Gold Coast in Australia. His life changed when he returned to India on his father's request only to be elected as the new Sarpanch of Nagaur village in Rajasthan.
He was earning Rs. 2 crore a year in Australia.
While working in Australia, Chaudhary, 27, received a call from his father requesting him to contest the panchayat election. The need arose after the government set educational prerequisites for contesting village polls.
Now all those contesting panchayat elections must have studied till Class 8 in school. Members of the panchayat samiti, which governs a group of villages must be educated at least till the 10th Grade. This rule left 85% of the candidates ineligible. The Rajasthan High court refused to overrule the order.
"After Class 8 minimum qualification rule came on the ground people of village contacted me. I asked my brother, he said if you want to do social work you can come back. He supported me fully so I came here and won the election with good margin," Chaudhary said.
He launched a door-to-door campaign to win with a record 6000 votes.
His campaigns were never centered on castes.
"I did not speak anything about casteism or the Jat-Rajput rivalry, I told personally everybody about development and that was the main point," said Chaudhary who belongs to the Jat community.
