The Opposition Congress in Rajasthan has been caught in a difficult situation over speculations that its influential tribal leader and former Minister Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya is going to quit the party and join the Bharatiya Janata Party. Mr. Malviya, 63, has given enough indications that he is not happy with the way he has been treated in the party.
A Congress Working Committee member, Mr. Malviya is four-time MLA from Bagidora in Banswara district. He was also elected an MP from Banswara in 1998 and he served as a Minister twice in the Congress regimes in the State. His wife Resham Malviya is a three-time Zila Pramukh in Banswara.
Mr. Malviya, considered the Congress’s prominent face in southern Rajasthan’s tribal region, is reportedly miffed at not being appointed the Leader of Opposition after the party’s defeat in the 2023 Assembly election. The coveted post was given to much younger Dalit leader Tika Ram Jully.
