Historical Figures

5. Second government of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat

In the year 1990, elections were held in Rajasthan in which the Bharatiya Janata Party won 85 seats, Janata Dal Undivided 54 and Congress (E) won 50 seats. One CPI candidate won. Independents won 9 places. As a BJP candidate, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat contested from two seats - Chhabra and Dholpur and won both the seats. Due to this, only 84 MLAs were left in BJP's bag and no party got majority. The BJP requested the Janata Dal (Undivided) to join the government which was accepted. Thus on 4 March 1990, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat formed the government for the second time in the state.

Along with Shekhawat, BJP's Bhanwarlal Sharma and Lalit Kishor Chaturvedi and Janata Dal's Natthi Singh took oath as cabinet ministers. On March 14, 1990, Krishna Kumar Goel, Chaturbhuj Verma, Vijaysinh Jhala, Ramkishore Meena and Pushpa Jain of BJP and Digvijay Singh, Chandrabhan and Sumitra Singh of Janata Dal took oath as cabinet ministers. BJP's Harlal Singh Kharra, Ramzan Khan, Kalulal Gurjar, Mohan Meghwal, Jivraj Katara, Kundanlal Miglani, Chunilal Garasiya and Janata Dal's Fateh Singh took oath as ministers of state. Harishankar Bhabhada was elected the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly on 16 March 1990. On July 5, 1990, Yadunath Singh of Janata Dal was unanimously elected as the Vice-President. Later on 19 March 1991, Yadunath Singh resigned from his post and Hira Singh Chauhan of BJP became the vice-president.

On 30 May 1990, Hari Kumar Audichya and Vidya Pathak of BJP and Prof. Kedar Nath, Sampatram and Madan Kaur were made cabinet ministers. On the same day Jogeshwar Garg and Shantilal Chaplot of BJP and Rameshwar Dayal Yadav, Devisingh Bhati, Nafees Ahmed Khan and Gopal Singh Khandela of Janata Dal were made ministers of state. On 23 October 1990, the Janata Dal decided to part ways with the BJP government due to the BJP's Ayodhya Rath Yatra. 7 cabinet ministers- Natthi Singh, Sampatram, Prof. Kedar, Digvijay Singh, Chandrabhan, Sumitra Singh and Madankaur and four ministers of state – Fateh Singh, Gopal Singh Khandela, Rameshwar Dayal Yadav and Nafees Ahmed resigned from the government, reducing the government to a minority. On 5 November 1990, 22 Janata Dal MLAs rejected Nathi Singh's leadership and announced their continued support for the BJP.

On 8 November 1990, the Shekhawat government won the vote of confidence in the Legislative Assembly. 116 votes came in favor of the government and 80 against. The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly did not vote. The cabinet was expanded on 24 November 1990. Janata Dal (Digvijay)'s Digvijay Singh, Gangaram Choudhary, Lalchand Dudi, Bhanwarlal Sharma, Sampat Singh, Jagmal Singh Yadav, Ramnarayan Vishnoi as cabinet ministers, Nafees Ahmed Khan, Umaid Singh, Jagatsingh Dayama, Mandhatasingh, Babulala Khanda and Ratanlal Jat as ministers of state and Mishrilal. Chaudhary and Dungarram Panwar were made deputy ministers. Independent Madan Mohan Singhal was made Minister of State and Ram Pratap Kasania as Deputy Minister. On 9 January 1992, Sampat Singh and Jagmal Singh of Janata Dal (Digvijay) resigned from the government. On 24 January 1992, BJP's Jogeshwar Garg and Chunilal Garasiya resigned from the cabinet to attend Murli Manohar Joshi's yatra. On 17 February 1992, Kailash Meghwal of BJP took oath as the cabinet minister. On 1 December 1992, BJP's cabinet minister Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi resigned from the cabinet to participate in the kar seva in Ayodhya.

Birth of three districts

During the tenure of his second government, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat formed the districts of Dausa, Rajsamand and Baran. With this the number of districts in the state increased from 27 to 30. During this tenure, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was successful in getting Rs 11500 crore sanctioned to Rajasthan in the Eighth Five Year Plan of the Central Government.

Second government also came under President's rule

On 6 December 1992, due to the activities in Ayodhya, the Central Government overthrew the Shekhawat government and imposed President's rule in the state and the assembly was dissolved.

Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's third government

Voting was held on 11 November 1993 for the Tenth Legislative Assembly in the state. On 27 November the votes were counted and the election results were declared. BJP got 95 places, Congress (E) got 76 places, CPI(M) got 1 place, Janata Dal got 6 places and Independents and others got 21 places. BJP supported Gangaram Chaudhary in Barmer, Bhagwan Das Dosi in Chauhtan and Kunwar Arun Singh in Deeg area. All three of them won the elections.

Bhairon Singh Shekhawat contested the tenth assembly election from Bali seat in Pali district, in which he was victorious. Thus on December 11, 1993, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat formed his government for the third time in the state with the help of independents. Commenting on President's rule when he formed his third government, he called it a 'government holiday'.

Along with him, BJP's Bhanwarlal Sharma, Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi, Devisingh Bhati, Gulabchand Kataria, and independents Sujan Singh Yadav and Gangaram Chaudhary were made cabinet ministers. BJP's Nathusinh Gurjar, Rajendrasinh Rathod, Jaswantsinh Bishnoi, Shrikishan Songra, Nandlal Meena, Rampratap Kasania, Anang Kumar Jain, Madan Dilawar, Achalaram Meghwal, Sanwarlal Jat, Independent Rohitash Kumar, Gyan Singh Chaudhary, Narendra Kanwar and Shashi Dutta were made ministers of state. . Independent Gurjant Singh and Mangalaram Koli were made deputy ministers.

On 22 December 1993, Arjun Singh Deora of BJP was administered the oath of minister of state. On 20 February 1994, Kailash Meghwal and Raghuveer Singh Kaushal of BJP were administered the oath of office as cabinet ministers. Out of 6 members of Janata Dal, three members joined BJP. On 6 October 1994, Assembly Speaker Harishankar Bhabhada was made cabinet minister, Nasrukhan, Brijraj Singh and Poonjalal Garasiya were made ministers of state. Brijraj Singh died on 27 February 1995. Due to differences with the Chief Minister, Shashi Dutta resigned on 17 January 1997 and Poonjalal Garasiya on 20 January 1997. On 7 December 1997, Devisingh Bhati also had to resign on the instructions of the Chief Minister for indecent behavior with a senior officer. On March 21, 1998, Raghuveer Singh Kaushal also resigned after being elected the state BJP president. Gyan Singh Choudhary resigned on 1 June 1998 due to personal reasons.

On July 2, 1998, BJP's Ghanshyam Tiwari was appointed as a cabinet minister and Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, Kalicharan Sarraf, Rajendra Gehlot, Kanhaiyalal Meena, Bhanwar Singh Dangawas, Babulal Verma, Sunderlal, Amraram Choudhary, Dalichand, Shivdan Singh, Mahavir Bhagora and Ujla Arora were ministers of state. was appointed. On 8 July 1998, Vijayendra Pal Singh was made the cabinet minister and Chunilal Dhakad was made the minister of state. Two deputy ministers Gurjant Singh and Mangalaram Koli were promoted and made ministers of state.

Emphasis on setting up of new industries

Bhairon Singh Shekhawat emphasized on the establishment of new industries in Rajasthan and decided to give state assistance to those who set up new industries in cities with a population of up to one lakh. Literacy, tree plantation, family planning, women's education, etc. were the main programs of his priority. When he became the Chief Minister for the third time in 1993, a provision was made for family planning by amending the Panchayati Raj Act that a person with more than two children cannot contest the election of Panch-Sarpanch. During this tenure, Shekhawat set a new example in the democratic history of India by making provision for reservation for scheduled castes, tribes, other backward castes and women in Panchayati Raj and local autonomous institutions. This reservation was implemented on the basis of rotation system.


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