When one CM won and lost all of Rajasthan’s 25 LS seats

By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, March 13 (IANS) Call it an irony or sheer coincidence. Rajasthan has been witness to winning and losing all its 25 Lok Sabha seats elections the two separate tenures of senior Congress leader Shivcharan Mathur as the Chief Minister.

He became the chief minister for the first time on July 14, 1981 and continued till Feb 23, 1985. During this time, Lok Sabha elections were held in 1984. The emotional and sympathetic wave in favour of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had been assassintated by her Sikh bodyguards, helped Congress register a grand win and all the 25 seats went into the party's kitty.

However, Mathur, man who started his political career as president of Bhilwara municipality, resigned soon after the state witnessed tensions following the slaying of an MLA, Raja Man Singh.

Revenue, Labour and Mines Minister Hiralal Devpura was immediately asked to take over as Chief Minister and he served from February 23, 1985 to March 10, 1985. For reasons that are not exactly clear, Devpura stepped aside and Hari Deo Joshi assumed office. There was however, a campaign against him and he stepped aside on January 20, 1988.

Mathur then became the Chief Minister for the second time. General elections were held in November under the shadow of V.P. Singh snapping ties with the Rajiv Gandhi government on Bofors issue and joining hands with the BJP to challenge the Congress in the polls.

Thise time around, the Congress lost all 25 seats with the BJP winning 13 seats and V.P. Singh's Janata Dal 11 seats. The remaining seat was captured by Shyopat Singh of the CPI-M from Bikaner.

Disheartened with this major loss, Shiv Charan Mathur quit on December 4, 1989.

There is one other coincidence here.

He was born in Madhya Pradesh's Guna district in Nadikanugo. However, he pursued his education and work in Rajasthan.

In the 2014 elections, the BJP under Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje won all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthen. She was born in Gwalior, also in Rajashtan but pursued her politcal career in Rajasthan.

(Archana Sharma can be contacted at archana.s@ians.in)