Congress Fields "Favourite Officer" Tarachand Meena From Udaipur Lok Sabha Constituency (image@TaraChand_INC_)

The Indian National Congress fields Tarachand Meena, the former collector from the Udaipur Lok Sabha constituency. The former IAS officer also served as Tribal Commissioner of Udaipur. He will be contesting against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mannalal Rawat, a former RTO (Road Transport Office) officer in Udaipur. Meena is believed to be the “favourite officer” of former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

Meena, the 2011 IAS batch has been on an APO from January 5 this year, as soon as the BJP took over. He applied for VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme) on January 12. He is on the three months notice period now, which will end on June 2024. Reportedly, Meena had a good time during the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan. He was appointed as the Chittorgarh collector in 2021, and eight months later, he was appointed as the collector of Udaipur. The position is considered to be significant owing Udaipur being a divisional headquarters as well. Meena was awarded with the prestigious Skoch award for initiating Mission Kotra. The award was given for his contribution in initiating developments in the remote tribal village of Udaipur.

Meena was then appointed as the Tribal Affairs Department (TAD) Commissioner in Udaipur, and was given additional charges of Director, Mines and MDRSMM also, which took the state bureaucracy by surprise. He was awarded with CM Excellence Award in April 2023. It was a known secret by then that the Gehlot government has set its mind to bring Tarachand Meena into politics.