BJP candidate Shobharani Kushwah, wife of the former MLA and murder convict B.L. Kushwah, filed her nomination for the April 9 Assembly byelection from Dholpur in Rajasthan on Wednesday.
The seat fell vacant after B.L. Kushwah’s disqualification following his conviction on December 8 last in a 2012 case of “honour killing”.
Along with her husband, Ms. Kushwah is an accused in a chit fund fraud case registered against their financial company.
Mr. Kushwah was elected to the Assembly on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket. The ruling BJP inducted Ms. Kushwah and her supporters into the party in February this year as her community has a significant strength among the 1.82 lakh voters in the constituency.
Though Dholpur is the home turf of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, as she was married to Hemant Singh of the town’s erstwhile ruling family, the BJP won only one of the four seats in the district in the 2013 Assembly elections. It won in the reserved constituency of Baseri, while Dholpur went to the BSP and Bari and Rajakhera to the Congress.
BJP State president Ashok Parnami, Jhalawar-Baran MP Dushyant Singh, who is Ms. Raje’s son, and a large number of supporters accompanied Ms. Kushwah when she filed her nomination. Both the BJP and the Opposition Congress are treating the Dholpur byelection as a matter of prestige in view of the Assembly elections due next year.
