Jaipur: BJP leader Kirodi Lal Meena resigned from the Rajasthan Cabinet on Thursday. He had sent his resignation to Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma. He was appointed as Agriculture and Rural Development Minister in the BJP's Bhajan Lal Sharma government formed in Rajasthan in December last year.
He is recognised as a prominent leader of the Meena community in eastern Rajasthan.
Why Kirodi Lal Meena resign?
During the recent Lok Sabha elections, Meena has said that he would step down from his ministerial position if the BJP failed to retain all seven parliamentary seats under his responsibility. Following the party's loss of several seats, including his native Dausa, he resigned from his ministerial post.
"Before PM came to Dausa, I had said that if the (Dausa) seat is not won, I will leave the post of minister. Later, the PM spoke to me separately and gave me a list of seven seats. I worked hard on 11 seats, more so on seven. If the party loses even one seat out of the seven, I will leave the post of minister and serve water here," he said.
The agriculture and rural development minister campaigned on seats in eastern Rajasthan including Dausa, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli, Alwar, Tonk-Sawaimadhopur and Kota-Bundi.
The Lok Sabha poll results were announced on June 4.
About Kirodi Lal Meena?
Kirodi Lal Meena, senior BJP leader, is Minister of Agriculture & Horticulture, Rural Development Department in the Rajasthan government. Meena won the Lok Sabha polls twice in 1989 and 2009 from Sawai Madhopur and Dausa constituencies respectively.
Meena represented five different Assembly constituencies Mahuwa (1985), Bamanwas (1998), Sawai Madhopur (2003), Todabhim (2008) and Lalsot (2013) in the Rajasthan Assembly. Meena lost the 1980 Rajasthan Assembly polls from Mahuwa by just 16 votes against Congress candidate Hari Singh. However, he made a comeback in 1985 and defeated Hari Singh by 1,632 votes from Mahuwa.
In the 1993 Rajasthan polls, Meena was defeated by Congress candidate Daljeet Singh from Bari with a margin of 3,550 votes. In the 1998 polls, Meena won the Bamanwas constituency by over 13,000 votes. He won the Sawai Madhopur Vidhan Sabha seat in 2003 by defeating Congress candidate Yasmin Abrar with a margin of over 30,000 votes.
He also served as Rajasthan's Cabinet Minister for Food and Civil Supply in the first Vasundhara Raje Scindia government. He left the BJP in 2008 and won the Todabhim seat as an independent candidate. He again won the Assembly Election in 2013 from Lalsot as a National People's Party (NPP) candidate. However, he was defeated by BJP's Diya Kumari from the Sawai Madhopur seat in the same election. Meena rejoined the BJP again in 2018 and is now contesting the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly Election 2023 from Sawai Madhopur against Congress candidate Danish Abrar.
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