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Journalism of Courage
While several political parties and their top leaders have been speaking out against “parivarvaad” (dynasty politics), the trend has continued to mark public life in the country across the political spectrum. In the November 13 bypolls for seven Assembly seats in Rajasthan, there are four debutants in the fray who belong to various influential political families in the state.
Amit Ola, 48, is a third-generation politician from the Ola family. His grandfather Sis Ram Ola was a Congress veteran and a five-time Lok Sabha MP from Jhunjhunu and an eight-time MLA from various constituencies in Jhunjhunu district. Amit’s father Brijendra Ola won the Jhunjhunu Assembly seat for four consecutive terms between 2008 and 2023, before getting elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year.
The last time the BJP won this seat was in 2003. So, while the BJP has its task cut out, Amit would be under pressure to fill in his father’s shoes and retain the seat vacated by him. Apart from his father and grandfather, Amit’s wife Akanksha Ola has also contested the Assembly elections. Akanksha had fought on the Congress ticket in the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls from the Model Town Assembly seat, but finished a distant third behind the AAP and BJP candidates. Currently, she is a national secretary in the Mahila Congress.
Amit completed his Bachelor of Engineering from Nagpur University in 1998 and is currently the Chirawa Panchayat Samiti member in Jhunjhunu. He is also the founder of the Sis Ram Ola Trust, named after his grandfather who passed away in December 2013 when he was a Union minister. In his election affidavit, Amit has listed his income sources as business, agriculture and allowances entitled as a panchayat samiti member.
With both his parents having been the MLAs, Aryaan Zubair, 27, seemed to be waiting to take a plunge into electoral politics for some time.
Since 1990, the Ramgarh Assembly seat has been held by either the Khan family of the Congress or the BJP’s Gyan Dev Ahuja. Aryaan’s father Zubair Khan was first elected from here in 1990 and again in 1993, 2003 and 2023, while Ahuja won the seat in 1998, 2008, and 2013.
Following Zubair’s defeats in two consecutive polls in 2008 and 2013, the Congress fielded his wife Shafia Zubair in 2018, who went on to win the seat. But in 2023, the Congress again gave its ticket to Zubair, who won from the seat after a gap of 20 years. Zubair passed away last month, necessitating a bypoll in Ramgarh.
Although this is his electoral debut, Aryaan is said to have political experience thanks to his parents. His father Zubair, who had been associated with the Congress since his student days, had come in touch with Rajiv Gandhi, doing a lifelong stint in the party.
Aryaan helped his parents with their campaigning and booth management in the 2013, 2018 and 2023 elections. He also campaigned for the Congress candidates in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, 2019 and 2024.
He completed his senior secondary (IB diploma) in 2014 from Jaipur and his BBA. LL. B from ITM University (now NorthCap University), Gurugram, in 2019.
Aryaan was said to have become politically active after the 2018 Assembly elections. He assisted local residents of Ramgarh during the Covid pandemic. He also participated in Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022.
The brother of senior BJP leader and minister Kirodi Lal Meena, Jag Mohan Meena, 67, is a retired Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officer. He is the BJP’s candidate in the Dausa Assembly seat
in the upcoming bypoll. If he is elected, Jag Mohan will become the third concurrent MLA in the Rajasthan Assembly from the Meena family. Apart from Kirodi Lal, his nephew Rajendra Meena is also an MLA from Mahwa in Dausa district.
Jag Mohan’s late entry into active politics is explained by his long bureaucratic career. He started active campaigning for various BJP candidates in the 2018 polls and in subsequent elections. He had also been part of various protests and rallies held by the state BJP against the then ruling Congress during its 2018 – 2023 tenure on various issues such as paper leaks and the law and order situation.
Jag Mohan has been an RSS member since the Emergency, and is also said to have participated in the JP Movement.
As an executive volunteer of the Shiv Yog Foundation, he undertook various social work initiatives, including school uniform distribution in schools in Dausa and Alwar districts, distributing monthly ration packets to villagers, and promoting “no pesticide, organic farming” in the state.
He is said to have helped organise spiritual shivirs of Swami Dr Avdhoot Shivanand “to promote sanatan across Rajasthan”. He has also been managing the Bhagwan Gorakhnath Gaushala at Naugaon in Alwar – which claims to have over 1,000 cows — for the past 14 years.
The wife of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) chief Hanuman Beniwal, Kanika Beniwal, 37, is contesting in the bypoll as a party candidate from Khinvsar, the seat held by the Beniwal family since its creation. Hanuman was elected first from the seat in 2008 on the BJP ticket, in 2013 as an Independent, and then in 2018 as a candidate of his own party RLP.
In 2019, Hanuman was elected from the Nagaur Lok Sabha constituency, when he was an ally of the BJP, and then his brother Narayan Beniwal clinched the Khinvsar Assembly bypoll.
In the 2023 Assembly polls, Hanuman was again elected from Khinvsar. He went on to win the Nagaur seat in the recent Lok Sabha polls, this time in alliance with the INDIA bloc. If elected, Kanika will be the third member of the Beniwal family to represent the Khinvsar seat.
A BSc Biotechnology graduate, Kanika’s poll affidavit states that she is a housewife. Although she may not have been in active politics earlier, her address at Friday’s nomination rally signalled her arrival as a politician. She said Khinvsar would have a “double-engine government because MP is ours and the MLA too.” She also said that “CM saheb (Bhajan Lal Sharma of the BJP) has come here today but your CM (Hanuman Beniwal) has always been with you,” adding that “Khinvsar’s development doesn’t need any instructions”. Listing her priorities, she said she will work for “women empowerment”.
