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Bikaner Lok Sabha Constituency: As one of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, Bikaner is set to hold the first phase of Lok Sabha elections tomorrow, that is, April 19, Friday. Voting will commence at 8:00 a.m. and conclude at 5:00 p.m., with an additional hour provided as a buffer period for voters who are already present in the voting line.
It is historically known to be the stronghold of the Indian National Congress; however, after 1999, it failed to secure a win in the Indian Lok Sabha elections. On the other hand, the BJP won this seat four times in a row to establish its dominance from 2004 to 2019.
Arjun Ram Meghwal, the current sitting MP of Bikaner, won this seat in 2009, 2014, and 2019, making Bikaner a bastion of the BJP and will re-contest the Lok Sabha election 2024 for the fourth time against Congress’s Govind Ram Meghwal.
Contesting for the fourth time in a row, Arjun Ram Meghwal started his political journey in 2009, joining the BJP to contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Bikaner seat. Meghwal has been elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Bikaner constituency in Rajasthan in both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he defeated his Congress opponent, Shankar Pannu, by securing 62.84% of the votes, followed by securing a victory for the third consecutive time in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with a margin of 2,64,081 votes in comparison to the opponent from Congress Madan Gopal Meghwal.
Additionally, Meghwal has also held ministerial positions in the Narendra Modi cabinet, including Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs and Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation. Since May 2022, he has been the Chancellor of Jain Vishva Bharati University.
The Congress Party has chosen Govind Ram Meghwal to contest against the three-term sitting MP from the BJP, Arjun Ram Meghwal, in the forthcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Previously holding the positions of Cabinet Minister for Disaster Management and Relief, Administrative Reforms and Coordination, and Statistic Policy Planning Department in the Government of Rajasthan, as well as a Member of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly from Khajuwala, Govind Ram Meghwal was first elected as an MLA from Nokha, Bikaner, in 2003, and then again from Khajuwala in 2018.
He has also served as Parliamentary Secretary, State Minister, Government of Rajasthan, from 2003 to 2008. In January 2021, he was appointed as the Vice President of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee.
