News Analysis India

Tag: Hanuman Beniwal

  • Congress complains to EC over ‘horse-trading’ in Rajya Sabha polls in Rajasthan

    Express News Service

    JAIPUR: In the latest twist in the Rajya Sabha saga in Rajasthan, the ruling Congress has now complained to the Election Commission of horse trading efforts allegedly being made to ensure  win for media baron and BJP-backed Independent candidate Subhash Chandra.

    Meanwhile, Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), a former ally of the BJP, announced that its three MLAs will support Subhash Chandra — a decision that has led the AAP to allege that a Rs 40 crore deal was struck to swing these three votes.

    In the tussle to win the fourth Rajya Sabha seat in the state, allegations and counter-allegations about horse-trading have intensified. Government Chief Whip and Water Resources Minister Dr Mahesh Joshi on Tuesday complained to the Chief Electoral Officer on the possibility of horse-trading of MLAs.

    Joshi said the BJP is promoting horse-trading on the pretext of supporting Subhash Chandra. He remarked: “The BJP is playing a dirty game in Rajasthan from behind the scenes. Money and other inducements are being given to MLAs in Rajya Sabha elections. Due to this, there is a possibility of democracy getting weakened.” Joshi asserted that “The Gehlot government has failed horse-trading conspiracies in the past and will fail them now.”

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    Politics has also intensified after RLP announced that its three MLAs will vote for Subhash Chandra. This has drawn a sharp reaction from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its state in-charge Vinay Mishra. He termed Hanuman Beniwal as “the seat seller.”  Mishra made these charges against Beniwal on Twitter though the AAP has no MLA in Rajasthan and has nothing to lose or gain in these elections. After the Punjab victory, the party is trying to expand its presence in Rajasthan.

    Mishra has accused Beniwal of supporting Chandra by taking Rs 40 crore. He tweeted, “If you give me blood, I will give you freedom – Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. You vote for me, I will sell your vote for 40 crores – Netaji Beniwal (Rajya Sabha seat seller)”

    This row also led to Congress MLA Divya Maderna hitting out at Beniwal’s party. Terming it an “anti-farmer decision”, Maderna taunted Beniwal’s party by tweeting – “RLP is BJP’s B team.  This is an anti-farmer decision.  One of the three Congress candidates, Randeep Surjewala, is from the farmers’ class.  If they were farmer friendly, they would have decided to vote in their favour.”

    Maderna said Beniwal had broken his alliance with the BJP on the pretext of farmer agitation. The BJP has backed the candidature of Subhash Chandra whose channel had termed the agitating farmers “terrorists and Khalistanis”, she further said, adding that extending support to Chandra by his party is “sheer hypocrisy”.

    Sensing displeasure of some Congress and Independent MLAs, the BJP had extended its support to Chandra which has made the contest for the fourth Rajya Sabha seat a close one.

  • Hanuman Beniwal hits out at BJP’s Arun Singh for saying RLP has no credibility

    By PTI
    JAIPUR: Nagaur MP and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party convener Hanuman Beniwal on Thursday hit out at BJP general secretary Arun Singh for saying that his party was not credible.

    “Arun Singh has no mass base and he could not even fight the election of sarpanch. He has no right to raise questions on the credibility of the RLP because the RLP has been fighting on the issues of public interest,” he said.

    During a recent visit to Jaipur, Arun Singh, who is the BJP’s national general secretary in-charge for Rajasthan, had stated that the RLP has no credibility.

    Beniwal, a former BJP leader, said his party supported the BJP during the floor test last year.

    The Nagaur MP said that his party had contested the 2019-Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the BJP and the saffron party got its benefit on several seats.

    Beniwal quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in December last year over the issue of farm laws.

  • Parliament panel rebukes police official for not providing enough security to MP Hanuman Beniwal

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel on Wednesday came down heavily on a Rajasthan police official for failing to provide adequate security to RLP MP Hanuman Beniwal which allegedly led to attack on him, sources said.

    Barmer SP Sharad Choudhary and Amit Dhaka, Special Secretary to Chief Minister of Rajasthan, were summoned by the parliamentary committee of Privileges on Tuesday on this issue.

    The sources said while Choudhary deposed before the panel, Dhaka skipped the meeting.

    The committee members took serious note of Dhaka not attending the meeting and questioned Choudhary about his absence.

    They also grilled him for not providing adequate security to Beniwal, they said.

    Earlier this year, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) Beniwal was attacked during his visit to Barmer.

    The parliamentary panel had summoned top officials of the Rajasthan government on the same issue earlier as well.

  • Ex-NDA ally RLP’s Hanuman Beniwal says farmers agitation will reduce BJP to just two seats in next Lok Sabha elections

    Express News Service
    JAIPUR: Hanuman Beniwal, the RLP MP from Nagaur, has warned that “BJP will shrink back to two seats in Parliament” in view of its uncivil and non-cooperative attitude to citizens’ problems. Till 26th December Beniwal had been an ally of the BJP but like the Akali Dal, his RLP quit in support of the farmers agitation.

    Retaliating to controversial comments by BJP MP Jaskaur Meena and MLA Madan Dilawar’s who had termed farmers’ agitation as nothing but a “picnic spot where chicken biryani, cashews and almonds are being consumed daily, leading to spread of Bird Flu”, Beniwal, who broke away from NDA in protest against the Central Farm Laws, retorted this insensitivity on the part of BJP would cost it heavily in next elections.

    Beniwal emphasised that “the farmers’ agitation was a multi-state uprising which should not be taken lightly” and that “such provocative and insensible statements could prove to be disastrous for BJP” as the six states around Delhi had a combined representation of 120 MPs in Parliament.”  

    He said the RLP stood with the farmers as they were fighting for their rights and undertaking a peaceful protest of a scale and dimension never seen before in independent India. Beniwal said leaders like Jaskaur Meena and Madan Dilawar were not aware of the ground realities and invited them to the Rajasthan border to see whether the farmers were eating chicken biryani or cooking food for themselves.

    Affirming all agitators were genuine farmers, Beniwal opined such heartless BJP leaders needed psychiatric treatment especially when the movement was going on spontaneously at various state borders at Tikari, Singhu and Ghazipur. He felt “BJP leaders were talking such nonsense only to get attention in the media even though more than 50 farmers have been martyred in the cause”. Hanuman Beniwal said relay fast of RLP workers will continue till the withdrawal of the bill.

    The activism on the Shahjahanpur border of NH-48 has increased further after another dialogue of the farmers representatives with the central government failed to bear any resolution. Meanwhile, on Saturday, social activist Medha Patkar reached a halt in Maharashtra with the widows of 14 farmers who had committed suicide and had been on a hunger strike in protest against the Kisan Bill. In a statement at the site, National President of Kisan Mahapanchayat, Rampal Jat, called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a dictator in power. Medha Patkar too described the Modi government as indulging in breaking the country with its devious policies and agendas. 

  • RLP chief says party will field own candidates for 3 Assembly bypolls, 90 local bodies election

    By PTI
    JAIPUR: Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) convener and Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal, who quit the NDA in support of farmers agitation against the farm laws, on Saturday said his party will filed its own candidates for the upcoming bypolls to three assembly seats and elections in 90 local bodies.

    He exuded confidence that the party, which has three MLAs and one MP, will win the bypolls to Sahara, Rajsamand and Sujangarh assembly constituencies.

    He exuded confidence that the party, which has three MLAs and one MP, will win the bypolls to Sahara, Rajsamand and Sujangarh assembly constituencies.

    Bye-elections in these seats were necessitated following the death of the sitting legislators.

    While Congress held the Sahara and Sujangarh constituencies while the BJP had won the Rajsamand seat.

    “The party (RLP) will contest the upcoming bypolls in three assembly elections.

    Apart from them, the party will also field candidates in the local bodies elections,” Beniwal told reporters here on Saturday.

    He also said corruption will be the main agenda of elections to the local bodies.

    Commenting on the formation of ‘Vasundhara Raje Samarthak Rajasthan (Manch)’ floated by the former CM’s supporters, Beniwal termed it “parallel BJP” and a “challenge for prime minister (Narendra Modi)”.

    About splitting from the NDA, the RLP convener said he did so in view of farmers agitation and demanded that the Centre repeals the three contentious farm laws.

    At the same time, he also accused the Congress government in Rajasthan of neglecting the issues concerning the youths.

    Beniwal said he has extended his support to the farmers agitation and along with party MLAs, leaders and workers he will continue to hold peaceful dharna at Shahjahanpur near Rajasthan-Haryana border till the farmers demands are met.