From Party Rebel To Party Chief: The Rise Of PM Modi-Backed Madan Rathore As BJP's New Rajasthan President

After being denied a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket to contest the 2023 Rajasthan election, Madan Rathore decided to contest as an Independent candidate from Pali's Sumerpur assembly constituency.

From being a rebel back then to now becoming the president of the BJP's Rajasthan unit, Rathore has come a long way in nine months.

A lot of credit for this turnaround goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

It was PM Modi himself who called Rathore when he decided to contest against the BJP candidate Joraram Kumawat. Modi requested Rathore to withdraw his nomination.

Since he did so on PM Modi's request, the BJP rewarded Rathore with a Rajya Sabha seat and sent him to the Upper House of Parliament in March this year.

In the Lok Sabha election, he was appointed the convener of the Barmer seat. However, the BJP came third on this seat, behind the winning Congress candidate and the Independent candidate Ravindra Singh Bhati.

That said, the BJP's performance in Rajasthan was disappointing overall. The party had been winning all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state since 2014, but in 2024, its tally came down to 14.

Taking responsibility for the debacle, the state BJP president C P Joshi stepped down from the post on Thursday (25 July), paving the way for the appointment of Rathore.

Rathore is a two-time Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Sumerpur in the Pali district. His term as MLA coincides with Vasundhara Raje's tenure as chief minister — 2003 to 2008 and 2013 to 2018.

In 2018, Rathore was denied a ticket. When the same happened in 2023, he lost his patience. He could be retained within the BJP fold only after PM Modi's intervention.

Rathore started public life by becoming a pracharak in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the 1970s. He joined the BJP in the mid-1980s and served in various positions in the party's Pali district unit.

Rathore got close to Modi in the 1990s and even hoisted India's national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar with Modi and senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi. He was arrested during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Rathore was also the BJP deputy chief whip in the Rajasthan assembly from 2014 to 2018. His elevation to the state president's post appears to be the party's attempt to strike a caste balance.

Joshi was appointed as the state BJP president in March last year to take Vasundhara Raje Scindia along, since she was getting alienated when her rival Satish Poonia was the state BJP president.

Joshi was a neutral face, having no alignment with any of the factions within the party, and the BJP needed Raje for the assembly election. Subsequently, the party won.

However, instead of Raje, Bhajan Lal Sharma, a Brahmin, was appointed the chief minister. Joshi, too, is a Brahmin, and Brahmins holding the top two positions in the state was disturbing the party's caste arithmetic.

Hence, Rathore, an Other Backward Class (OBC) face, has been brought in, as the BJP already has a representation of Rajputs and Dalits in the form of Deputy chief ministers Diya Kumar and Prem Chand Bairwa, respectively.

Besides Rathore, the BJP national president J P Nadda has also appointed Dr Radha Mohan Das Agrawal as the in-charge and party national secretary Vijaya Rahatkar as the co-in-charge of Rajasthan BJP.

Agrawal, a Vaishya by caste, is a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from Uttar Pradesh. He is a four-time MLA from Gorakhpur Urban, a constituency presently represented by Uttar Pradesh's chief minister, Yogi Adityanath.

These appointments come ahead of the by-polls for five assembly seats, expected to be held soon. Also, the change was needed to revive energy after losses in the Lok Sabha election.