The Bharatiya Janata Party on March 31 declared its Rajasthan unit general secretary Damodar Agarwal as the party’s candidate at the Bhilwara seat for the Lok Sabha elections. Mr. Agarwal has replaced the sitting three-time BJP MP Subhash Baheria, who had defeated his Congress rival with the biggest margin of six lakh votes in 2019.
With this, the BJP has announced its candidates for all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan. Mr. Agarwal told journalists that the contest would be interesting as Bhilwara was his hometown, and he had served the people in the region as a social activist and as a worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP for several years.
Bhilwara is among the 13 seats where polling will be held in the second phase on April 26. The Opposition Congress has fielded former Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi from the seat, replacing its earlier candidate Damodar Gurjar, who has been shifted to Rajsamand.
Mr. Agarwal has been active in politics for the last four decades, though he has not contested in any election. He was earlier an RSS pracharak, and he served twice as the BJP’s district unit president. He was also the party’s in-charge for Chittorgarh, Udaipur and Rajsamand districts.