Athlete Devendra Jhajharia Nominated For Churu Seat; Sitting BJP MP Switches To Congress (Photo on X Devendra Jhajharia (Modi ka Parivar) @DevJhajharia)
An athlete who recently got his chance to participate in politics when the BJP nominated renowned Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia for Rajasthan”s Churu Lok Sabha constituency for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Devendra Jhajharia is a Paralympic javelin thrower and the first Indian Paralympics player to win two gold medals in the sport. He won his first gold in the Javelin throw in 2004, marking the second person to secure a gold medal at the Paralympics.
Mr Jhajharia was also the recipient of the Padma Shri award in 2012, the first-ever para-athlete to get the award. He was also honoured with Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honour of India, in 2017 and with Padma Bhushan in 2022.
Born in 1981 and brought up in Churu district of Rajasthan, the athlete”s foray into politics was quite unexpected. The BJP surprised many when it announced the first list of candidates with new several new faces, and Mr Jhajharia’s nomination was a surprise for many leaders in the constituency.
One of the BJP leaders shaken by the nomination of the Jhajharia was the incumbent BJP MP Rahul Kaswan, who has been representing the constituency since 2014 with a record margin in its history. Disappointed over the denial of ticket for the third term, Mr Kaswan left the BJP and joined the Congress party, which is likely to give ticket for Kaswan to contest in his sitting seat.
As a fresh face who has never been in electoral politics, Mr Jhajharia’s debut would probably be hard as the BJP”s two-term MP switched to the grand old party to contest against him. Further, the constituency had been seeing a close battle between the Congress and BJP until Mr Kaswan’s arrival. Mr Kaswan set a record by surpassing all the prior records in the majority.
The BJP’s new candidate Mr Jhajharia’s recently elected as the President at the Paralympic Committee of India. He had submitted his nomination a few weeks ago for the post. However, after the BJP announced his nomination, Mr Jhajharia’ said that he never imagined the BJP would give him a Lok Sabha ticket. “Among the 5 to 7 crore disabled people of the country, I am happy that today BJP has nominated a disabled person,” he was heard saying in a video shared by the new agency ANI.
#WATCH जयपुर: पैरालंपिक खिलाड़ी और चूरू से भाजपा उम्मीदवार देवेंद्र झाझरिया ने कहा, “… ये मेरे लिए बड़ी खुशी का पल है… देश के 5 से 7 करोड़ दिव्यांग लोगों में खुशी है कि आज भाजपा ने एक दिव्यांग व्यक्ति को टिकट दिया है… ” pic.twitter.com/i0y0TihWOH
— ANI_HindiNews (@AHindinews) March 2, 2024
He also thanked the prime minister Modi and party leadership for trusting him. “After a long innings of sports life, I will always be indebted to you for the way the Honorable Prime Minister has trusted a person like me from an ordinary farmer family and given me a ticket,” he wrote in a post on X.
माननीय प्रधानमन्त्री श्री नरेन्द्र मोदी के नेतृत्व में लोकसभा चुनाव 2024 के लिए भारतीय जनता पार्टी के शीर्ष नेतृत्व द्वारा मुझे चूरू लोकसभा सीट से प्रत्याशी बनाया गया है, जो मेरे लिए अविस्मरणीय पल है। खेल जीवन की लम्बी पारी के बाद आज जिस प्रकार से माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी द्वारा…
— Devendra Jhajharia (Modi ka Parivar) (@DevJhajharia) March 2, 2024
Notably, he had praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2021 saying that the Prime Minister motivated him and has been doing well for the betterment of the sports in the country.
