Ashok Gehlot

Ashok Gehlot was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, on May 3, 1951, and took power as Rajasthan's chief minister for a second time on December 13, 2008. The Jodhpur-born, long-serving member of the Indian National Congress has been engaged in politics since her time in college and spent five terms in the Lok Sabha.

During the administrations of Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv Gandhi, and PV Narsimha Rao, he held the role of Union Minister. He was selected on a Congress ticket to represent Sardarpura, Jodhpur, in the thirteenth Legislative Assembly vote in 2008.

Early Life

Laxman Singh Gehlot, an entertainer who traveled the nation accomplishing his achievements, is the father of Ashok Gehlot. He is an associate of the caste Mali. In addition to being an extractive contractor, Gehlot's dad had a two-year stint as president, along with a term as vice president for the Jodhpur Municipal Corporation.

Gehlot has an M.A. in economics alongside possessing a graduate of law and science. He has two children: a boy and a girl. He has tied the knot to Sunita Gehlot. He participated in the elections for the Lok Sabha in 2019 from Jodhpur as an elected official with his son Vaibhav Gehlot.

He belongs to the Indian National Congress (INC) political party. At an early age, the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi had an impact on him, as well as a student, he took an active role in political and social activism. He worked in refugee settlements for East Bengali refugees in the eastern provinces of the country during the 1971 crisis.

During one of her travels to the shelters for refugees, previous prime minister Indira Gandhi first observed his organizing abilities there. After his appointment, Gehlot established the state-level Student Wing of the National Congress and became the very first State President of the National Students' Union of India.

In order to more effectively fit into the Gandhiite lifestyle, Gehlot—a devout supporter of the movement—lived in Wardha. He is a strict vegetarian who takes his meals before sundown and likes Satvik Meals. He does not drink alcohol, either.

Career in Politics

In Banswara, Rajasthan, Sonia Gandhi, and Ashok Gehlot, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, officially inaugurated the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). His strongest rival, Madhav Singh, who represented the Janata Party, defeated him by an aggregate of 4426 votes in his first bid for the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly in 1977, when he ran for the Sardarpura seat.

He ran for the Lok Sabha from Jodhpur in 1980 and won with a vote count of 52,519 to 1. He became a Union Minister in 1984 after being appointed. He was defeated in his 1989 Jodhpur election.

P.V. Narasimha Rao, the prime minister at that point, nominated him as a Union Minister once more after the Congress party came back to power in 1991. After serving his term in 1993, he returned home to Rajasthan to supervise political activities for the Congress party. With the election of 153 out of 200 members in 1998, Congress succeeded by an enormous margin. For the very first time, Ashok Gehlot was named Rajasthan's Chief Minister.

Rajasthan was lost and just 56 seats were acquired by the Congress in the year 2003. In order to minimize unpredictability, Gehlot, an established troubleshooter in the Congress, was selected as the Chief Minister in the 2008 Rajasthan Legislative Assembly elections. As a result, he was voted in for the second time as Chief Minister.

Congress only managed to win 21 seats out of the 200 members of the parliament in 2013, recording its worst-ever loss. In 2013, Gehlot was elected as General Secretary of the AICC. He held this position until 2018. Following the 2018 Rajasthan Legislative Assembly election, which saw the Congress retake power, he was named Chief Minister for a third time, even though Sachin Pilot ran a strong campaign.

This was because of his contribution to Congress's comeback following its most devastating legislative election defeat. The position of Deputy Chief Minister was given to Sachin Pilot. Sonia Gandhi is said to be backing the idea of Gehlot heading the Congress in the following Indian general election, based on reports from 2022.

It recently emerged that he actually supports the idea of a caste census. He stated that the most backward communities in the nation's Other Backward Class (OBC) category would get an extra 6% of the quota.

Policies for Administration

Bill for the Right to Health

Ashok Gehlot's management introduced the "Right to Health" law in 2023 with the objective of providing free medical care to all Rajasthani citizens in all hospitals run by the state. According to the law, every healthcare facility in Rajasthan, either public or private, has a responsibility to provide immediate medical attention to the inhabitants of Rajasthan at no extra cost to them.

The state's medical practitioners and the Indian Medical Association rejected the bill's clauses despite the fact that many saw it as an advantageous move. Many of them protested the law in public, and multiple issues about the plan's usefulness were raised.

The bill's opponents said that it would put strict administrative supervision over the private sector, hindering its ability to function as intended. The fact that the measure does not specify how private hospitals would be paid after giving patients free care in an emergency prompted the private medical institutions to object.

Another issue with the measure was that it failed to define what an "emergency" constituted. But complying with discussions with those who were interested, Gehlot's administration was able to put the terms of the bill into effect with a few adjustments.

Government officials suggested that the regulations would not apply to hospitals with less than fifty beds; rather, they were restricted to private hospitals constructed with government funding or support. Through the passage of this law, Rajasthan became the first province in India to put into effect the universal privilege of health.

Jaipur Metro Project

On September 21, 2013, during the first stone-laying celebration of Phase-1B of Jaipur Metro, in Jaipur, Rajasthan, Manmohan Singh accepted a token of appreciation from Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

In order to serve the state of Rajasthan with efficient transportation facilities, Gehlot began construction of the Jaipur Metro Project in 2013. The project's stage I-A was built between Mansarovar and Chandpole, while stage I-B was constructed between Chandpole and Badi Chaupar.

Bima Yojna Kamdhenu Pashu

Gehlot started to provide insurance for milch livestock to residential livestock owners in Rajasthan on April 12, 2023, with the start of the Kamdhenu Pashu Bima Yojna. To be eligible for this plan, a farmer must have a minimum of two milch animals and a yearly income of no more than eight lakh.

The Rajasthani administration also made the scheme open to farmers earning over eight lacs annually, although they were required to pay a ₹200 yearly premium for that instance. It was mandatory for the individuals selected to sign up for the program at the closest Mehngai Rahat Camp (camps designed to help with inflation). Gehlot also set up video meetings so that he could communicate with the general population directly and inform them of the plan.

According to the terms of this plan, the cow owner would get an insurance claim payment of ₹40,000 for each milch animal that died. Two animals per household are now eligible for the program, bringing the total compensation to ₹ 80,000. Like many other programs, this one was presented at Gehlot's request via 2,500 inflation relief centers located around the state with the goal of providing people with the ten signature initiatives of Gehlot's administration.

Leadership

Gehlot is well-known for his political savvy, and his fellow party members often call him "magician" or "jadugar." According to reports, in 2022, Gehlot made certain that the three candidates from the Indian National Congress won the four Rajya Sabha seats up for discussion. In his goal of stopping horse trading, he also succeeded in obtaining the votes of certain independent electors—those who were not affiliated with a particular political party—in favor of individuals running for Congress.

Following Gehlot's triumph in the 2022 election, Rajasthani member of the Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari complimented Gehlot for his electoral savvy. Before the 2023 Rajasthan Legislative Assembly elections, Gehlot mentioned in a public speech in Dholpur that 3 MLAs from the Bharatiya Janata Party, namely Vasundhara Raje, the previous Chief Minister of Rajasthan, as well as Shobha Rani Kushwaha, the MLA for Dholpur, had helped him in staying away his government from being sacked in 2020 by some dissident politicians within his own party.

In response to Gehlot's statement, however, Raje alleged that he was conspiring to undermine her and the overall leadership of the BJP. In 1998, along with Sonia Gandhi's ascendancy to the Indian National Congress presidency, Gehlot gained power for the first time as Chief Minister. Because veteran politician and Jat community member Parasram Maderna was the face of the Indian National Congress during that year's election, the Jat community is said to have put its backing behind the political group.

At the time, Maderna was competing for the role of chief minister, and the Jat community had backed Congress to make sure they got a chief minister from inside. But Gehlot succeeded in pulling Maderna aside, making it possible for him to become the prime. When Sachin Pilot, a leader of the upcoming generation in Congress, resisted Gehlot and tried to take the leadership position, decades later, Gehlot confronted a similar circumstance in his political career.

But as stated by popular journalist and political journalist Rajendra Bora, "Gehlot declined to allow the leaders of future generations to take over in state government, and it was an electoral maneuver which enabled him to save his position." Some politicians argue that Gehlot blocked the emergence of a new leadership inside the Indian National Congress after his rise to popularity in Rajasthan.

According to experienced political commentator and writer Narayan Bareth, the Jat leadership in the region of Rajasthan considers Gehlot as their greatest political rival. Two of the most powerful Jat families, who impacted state politics substantially, had little chance of thriving politically ever since he was elected Chief Minister of State.

The ruling clans of Mirdha and Maderna, who associated with the Jat community, were relegated to supporting roles in state government. Over time, the Mirdhas lost their political value. Still, the Maderna family's position was hampered by Mahipal Maderna's extramarital affair, which led to Gehlot ousting him as head of his ministry. Gehlot states, however, that he has no power over the political direction of the Jat leadership of the state.

Several political analysts also agree that Gehlot is skilled at addressing emergencies through meticulous thought, in addition to his ability to adjust politically. When Gurjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla contacted Gehlot amid the state's Gurjar agitation, Gehlot presented him with an image of Martin Luther King and assured him that the stability of the state could not be sacrificed while the agitation was going on. In the Bhanwari Devi murder case, it is additionally alleged that Gehlot did nothing while he knew that Devi was extorting State Minister of Water Resources Mahipal Maderna.

This resulted in Devi's assassination and Maderna's termination along with other criminals; Gehlot's faith further caused his popularity graph to fall. Since Vasundhara Raje tied the knot in the Dholpur royal house, which used to be Jat-owned, she also took advantage of the suffering of the Jat people against Gehlot. There is a belief that the Congress did not manage to win elections again in 1998 because the Jat community had stopped supporting it as they had in the past. This was since Gehlot became Chief Minister in 1998 after pushing out Parasram Maderna.

Moreover, when Sachin Pilot proclaimed in 2020 that Gehlot's administration was in the minority, Gehlot managed to stave off the fall of his leadership by the revolt of some Congress MLAs who were believed to be sympathetic to Pilot. Sachin Pilot, the deputy chief minister of Rajasthan and an important ally of Ashok Gehlot, went to Delhi during the so-called Rajasthan Political Crisis of 2020, stating thirty MLAs were behind him.

Gehlot purportedly planned to dismiss Pilot from all major positions inside the Congress party, according to the MLAs of the Piot faction. Pilot's actions led the Congress management to issue an injunction and hold a Congress Legislature Party gathering in Jaipur.

However, Pilot completely disregarded Gehlot's leadership by neglecting to attend the conference. Afterward, it came to light that Pilot's Delhi camp included only twelve MLAs. Shortly after the latter purported to have a coalition of thirty MLAs, the Congress stated that 109 MLAs had given their approval in support of Gehlot.