Brijmohan Agrawal makes his Parliament debut at 65, credits his success to being among people

A first-generation politician who was born in Chhattisgarh, Agrawal and his elder brother have been associated with the RSS for a long time.

“During my school days, a student was failed by a teacher as he was not taking tuitions. We protested after which the teacher and our fellow students started referring to me as Netaji (laughs). I always have had a sense of nationalism and public service like my father,” Agrawal says.

Beginning his career as a student leader, Agrawal has been with the BJP since its inception in 1980 and was later appointed vice-president of the Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). He rose up the ranks and was a member of the BJYM’s national executive.

Agrawal contested his first Assembly election in 1990 from Raipur and became undivided Madhya Pradesh’s youngest MLA and minister at the age of 29. He went on to win the seat seven consecutive times and served as a minister four times in Chhattisgarh, holding key portfolios like Home, Education and Parliamentary Affairs.

Asked why he contested the recent Lok Sabha elections for the first time after becoming a minister for the fifth time in 2023, Agrawal said he just obeyed the party’s decision.

However, his supporters were left surprised after he was pipped by one-time MLA and first-time MP from Bilaspur, Tokhan Sahu, for a Union ministerial berth. Sahu is currently Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs in the Narendra Modi Cabinet.

Not known to miss marriage functions of his supporters even if it means reaching the wedding venue well past midnight, Agrawal is also known in his constituency for helping people with their medical and their children’s educational bills. During the pandemic, he operated a free Covid centre.

Speaking of his goals and targets during his first tenure as MP, Agrawal says he is working hard to get funds from the Centre as well as the state government to develop his constituency. “I want to make Raipur an educational hub and give my state international standards for educational institutions, hospitals, road and internet connectivity,” he adds.

In 2017, Agrawal had found himself in a controversy after The Indian Express reported about a land row, where his wife bought land from a farmer which the latter had already sold to the Chhattisgarh water resources department. In April this year an additional district court in Chhattisgarh’s Mahasamund district ruled in favour of the government asking Agrawal to hand over the property to the state government.