Known for plain-speaking, Kataria often gets ‘carried away’ in flow of speech

At a booth-level workers’ meeting in Churu in 2016, Kataria, then the Home Minister in the Vasundhara Raje government, addressed former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a derogatory way and continued to praise PM Narendra Modi.

Kataria had, while thumping his chest, said that US President Barack Obama came to receive Modi at the airport while an ordinary, “aira gaira nathu khaira” minister would earlier receive Singh.

Quite self-aware, Kataria was quick to apologise. Back then, he had told The Indian Express that he “realises” that it was “inappropriate” and he has a few slips when he is in the “flow”. In the Assembly, Kataria usually starts off politely, but over the course of his statement, gets worked up under the weight of his own words.

More recently, during the campaign for a bypoll in April 2021, Kataria had said: “Our ancestors fought for a thousand years. Did a mad dog bite Maharana Pratap that he left his capital and home, and roamed the hillocks while crying? For whom did he go? Don’t you understand anything?” While Congress had slammed the statement, Shri Rajput Karni Sena too had protested the remarks.

Occasionally, Kataria has also made communally charged remarks. In 2017, following the lynching of dairy farmer Pehlu Khan, Kataria was under fire from social activists here after he said that “both sides are at fault” and defended cow vigilantes saying that “gau rakshaks” try to stop them as per the law. “Stopping them is not a sin, but taking the law in their own hands is a crime,” he said.

In January 2019, he raked up ‘love jihad’ and indicated that if things don’t change soon, there may be a “Pakistan in every city” while attacking Muslims indirectly. Same year, The Election Commission censured him for his hate speech at a public meeting near Udaipur in April during the Lok Sabha polls.

With his roots in the RSS, Kataria is the tallest politician from the organisation in Rajasthan, and also the party’s tallest leader in the Mewar region, which covers districts in south Rajasthan, adjacent to Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh border.

In 2012, nursing Chief Ministerial aspirations, Kataria had announced his 28-day Lok Jagran Yatra in the Mewar region. However, Raje threatened to quit the party along with dozens of loyalist MLAs and Kataria called off his yatra.

Asked about it later, he said he nurses no such aspirations. “To prevent any losses to the party then, I withdrew my yatra within a second. We come from Sangh and our aim is not to go after a seat, but to work for the nation,” he said.

In 2013, CBI indicted Kataria in a chargesheet in Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. Back then, BJP had termed it a conspiracy and stood by Kataria, who was eventually discharged from the case in 2015.

The Udaipur MLA has degrees of MA, B Ed, LLB and officially identifies as an advocate. He was married in 1968 to Anita Katariya and the couple has five daughters.

Kataria was first elected on a Janata Party ticket from Udaipur in 1977, with Bhairon Singh Shekhawat becoming the CM. In 1980, he was re-elected from Udaipur on a BJP ticket. In 1985, he lost to Girija Vyas of Congress by 1.93 per cent votes. In 1989, he was elected as a Lok Sabha MP from Udaipur.

In 1993, Kataria again became an MLA, and would go on to stay one for the next three decades. In 1993 and 1998, he was elected from Badi Sadri on a BJP ticket. In 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2018 he was elected from Udaipur, also on a BJP ticket.

Kataria is the third leader from Rajasthan who has now become Assam Governor. In 1989, Haridev Joshi and then in 2008, Shiv Charan Mathur took charge as the Assam Governor. However, unlike Kataria, both were CMs first; Joshi was a three-term CM and Mathur was CM of Rajasthan twice.