Rajasthan | Suspended, Kushwah shoots back: It was BJP which ‘destroyed’ my family

In a statement issued Saturday, Kushwah said she did not approach the BJP for 2017 Assembly bypolls, but it was the BJP which had approached her.

“After destroying my family when they felt that not just the Kushwah community in Dholpur, but across Rajasthan could slip out of their hands, they approached and made some promises before the state president of my community and some youth. But not a single one of those promises was fulfilled,” the MLA said.

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During the BJP government in December 2016, the then Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Kailash Meghwal had terminated the Assembly membership of her husband B L Kushwah, who was with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) then, after he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘honour’ killing.

In the Assembly bypolls next year, the BJP fielded Shobharani from the same seat. She went on to win the seat and was re-elected in 2018 Assembly polls.

In her statement, Kushwah also says that there was just one BJP candidate, Ghanshyam Tiwari, “and we were not kept among the vishwas patra (confidants) and asked to vote for the independent. This is the same person who aired fake rumours against us across the country on his channel in 2014 and that person, riding on money power, was openly discussing cross-voting, despite not having sufficient numbers. Our followers did not accept such a person.”

Kushwah also detailed issues in Dholpur Nagar Parishad and in Dholpur Panchayat Samiti, where she alleged high handedness by certain party leaders and of working against the interests of the party in the district.

She says that there are still some national level BJP leaders who want to divide the community and side-line her in 2023 polls, since she and her husband have won the seat thrice continuously. “They know that if we win a fourth time, our political stature will reach new heights,” she said.

In perhaps an indication that she would be leaving the party, she said, “Any politician’s wajood (existence) is from their workers, and our workers have themselves decided that they do not want to be in a party whose national leaders work to defeat their own candidates.”

While Kushwah did not respond to comments, her brother-in-law Upendra Kushwah confirmed that the statement was issued by the MLA.