Rajyavardhan Rathore Faces An Uphill Task In Jhotwara (Image: X @Ra_THORe)
Rajyavardhan Rathore, the first Indian post-independence to win an individual silver at the Olympics, is currently aiming for the Rajasthan Assembly from the Jhotwara constituency. The double trap shooter is having a tough battle in Jhotwara as he is facing Congress’s youth leader, Abhishek Choudhary.
Born in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, Rajyavardhan Rathore dabbled in many sports and was particularly passionate about cricket. Rajyavardhan Rathore was not able to go forward with his passion as he joined the Indian Military Academy and was commissioned in the 9th Grenadiers Regiment in 1990. During this period, Rajyavardhan Rathore won the Sikh Regiment Gold Medal, which is usually awarded to the best sportsman at the Indian Military Academy. Rathore was stationed in Jammu and Kashmir, and in 2009, he was promoted to his final rank of Colonel.
Rajyavardhan Rathore took up shooting as a sport in 1998 and proved his incredible talent in the sport by winning the gold medal in the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. In the 2004 Athens Olympics, the army colonel brought home India’s first Olympic silver medal. Notably, this moment proved to be the spark that inspired the country to win multiple shooting medals in the following Olympic Games. In 2013, Rajyavardhan Rathore took voluntary retirement from the Indian army.
In September 2013, the ace shooter joined the BJP. He joined the BJP in the presence of then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, and Vasundhara Raje. “I know politics and politicians are hated but I still believe in goodness of a heart that has selfless intentions,” PTI quoted the BJP leader as saying on that occasion. The party projected Rajyavardhan Rathore as a youth icon. In 2014 Lok Sabha election, he defeated Congress candidate C. P. Joshi by a significant margin of 3,32,896 votes in the Jaipur (rural) seat and became minister of state for information and broadcasting. In 2017, the BJP leader was appointed minister of youth affairs and sports. In a surprise cabinet reshuffle in 2018, he took over the independent charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
In the 2019 general election, the BJP lawmaker won by a landslide margin of 393171 votes in Jaipur Rural. With the arrival of Rajyavardhan Rathore in the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly polls, it is sure that the BJP is aiming to establish a new leadership in the state. He is one of seven BJP MPs contesting the Rajasthan polls this time. However, in Jhotwara, Rathore is facing opposition within his own party. Jhotwara is one of the largest constituencies in Rajasthan, with over four lakh voters.
BJP workers are not happy as the seat is not given to Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, a former MLA and Vasundhara Raje Scindia loyalist. In October, he was shown black flags by supporters of Rajpal Singh Shekhawat. During the campaigns, Rajyavardhan Rathore mainly highlighted the development activities done by him as an MP. Recently, the BJP MP said that the assembly results would be in favor of the BJP.
