Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) supremo and Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal on Tuesday said the former MP Jyoti Mirdha, who had joined the BJP, had “no political existence” and her shift from Congress to BJP would not make any impact in the Nagaur Lok Sabha constituency. Mr. Beniwal said the Mirdha family had already lost its relevance in Nagaur.
Mr. Beniwal said during his visit to Bharatpur that the Nagaur district, situated at the centre of Rajasthan, had remained backward because of lack of action by the once politically influential Mirdha family. “They did not make any effort to bring industries and water or create educational facilities in Nagaur,” he said.
Mr. Beniwal, whose party was earlier in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), said Ms. Mirdha had joined the BJP because a finance company owned by her in-laws was on the radar of Enforcement Directorate and CBI because of its scams. “She has come to the shelter of the BJP to ensure that her in-laws don’t go to jail,” he said.
The RLP chief said he had defeated Ms. Mirdha twice – as an Independent in 2014 and as an NDA candidate in 2019. Even if the BJP decides to field her from the Nagaur seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party’s vote bank would not expand and her candidature would not yield any benefit in the Jat-dominated constituency, he said.
Ms. Mirdha, who was the Nagaur MP during 2009-2014, is the grand-daughter of veteran Congress leader, the late Nathuram Mirdha, who was the party’s State unit chief and served as a Union Minister. Ms. Mirdha, accompanied by Congress leader Sawai Singh Choudhary, jointed the BJP at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi on Monday, ahead of the Assembly election in Rajasthan.
Mr. Beniwal had won the 2019 Lok Sabha election with the BJP’s support, but he later parted ways during the farmers’ agitation. His younger brother Narayan Beniwal represents Nagaur district’s Khinwsar in the Assembly. The Nagaur MP said Ms. Mirdha’s entry into the BJP would not make any difference to the RLP, which had posed a strong challenge to both the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP in the State.
