In spotlight, Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot’s journey: BJP old hand, Dalit face in party, govt

On July 26, activist T J Abraham sent a complaint to the Governor against Siddaramaiah, seeking his sanction for prosecution of the CM in this case. Though the government had responded to the complaint and submitted a report through the Chief Secretary, Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot decided to issue a show-cause notice to Siddaramaiah.

In the notice, the Governor directed the CM to submit his reply to the allegations against him within seven days on why permission for his prosecution should not be granted.

Karnataka BJP leader and former CM B S Yediyurappa with JD(S) state president and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy and others during ‘Mysore Chalo’ padayatra in Bengaluru. (PTI Photo)

The state’s Council of Ministers held a meeting on Thursday to deliberate on the issue and decided to “strongly advise the honourable Governor to withdraw the (show-cause) notice” and reject the application filed by Abraham.

With Siddaramaiah recusing himself from it, Deputy CM D K Shivakumar held the meeting. He later said the Governor’s show-cause notice to the CM was a “political” move with “malafide intentions”. “We are confident that the Governor will be sensible as we have sent a detailed reply,” he said, adding that the notice was in violation of several court judgments.

“The entire sequence of events and the admitted facts and circumstances based on available records lead to an unequivocal conclusion that there is gross misuse of the Constitutional Office of the Governor and a concerted effort is being (made) to destabilise a lawfully elected majority government in Karnataka for political considerations,” the Council of Ministers stated.

On July 14, the Congress government constituted a single-member inquiry commission under former high court judge Justice P N Desai to probe the MUDA case.

Meanwhile, the BJP is going all out to corner Siddaramaiah on the issue, undertaking its week-long foot march along with its ally JD(S) against his government.

Union minister to Governor

Hailing from Rupeta village in Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh, Gehlot used to be a part of Bharatiya Jana Sangh since his teenage days from 1962 till 1977 when the political arm of the RSS ceased to exist.

A graduate from Vikram University in Ujjain, he then went on to become the vice president and general secretary of Janta Party from his home district and later joined the BJP to hold several key positions in the party throughout his political career spread across over five decades now.

He first became an MLA in 1980. After serving for three terms (1980-84, 1990-92, and 1993-96) in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Gehlot was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 to complete four consecutive terms as an MP till 2009. Gehlot was picked to represent Madhya Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha three years after he lost to Sajjan Singh Verma during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

Among the most recognisable Dalit faces in the BJP, he was appointed as the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment in 2014 itself when the Narendra Modi-led NDA government first took charge.

Gehlot was nominated to the Upper House for the second time in 2018 with his term in the Rajya Sabha extended till 2024. He had also been the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha since 2019.

Earlier, Gehlot had served as the BJP’s Karnataka state-in-charge between 2006 and 2014 when he was the party’s general secretary.