LS polls: Barmer's independent legislator Ravindra Singh Bhati stirs storm

Polling in Barmer-Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) Lok Sabha seat will be held on April 26

Ravindra Singh Bhati, 27, a former student leader and an independent legislator from the Sheo Assembly constituency, has stirred a desert storm with his well-attended public meetings in the sandy Barmer-Jaisalmer Lok Sabha seat.

One of the largest seats in the country in terms of geographical area, Barmer has had a penchant for electing rebels, royals, and former Army men since the first Lok Sabha polls in 1951-52. Now, Bhati's popularity has turned the constituency’s bipolar contest – between sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament Kailash Choudhary and Congress' Ummeda Ram Beniwal, who crossed over from the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party days before the elections, into a triangular one. Bhati, a Rajput, is not only drawing support from his community but also from Muslims, who have a sizeable presence in Barmer. Beniwal and Choudhary are Jats.

In 1951-52 and 1957, Barmer elected local feudal lords contesting as independent candidates. And in 1962, it sent the Ram Rajya Parishad's Tan Singh to the Lok Sabha. Amrit Nahata, who became famous in 1977 for producing the film Kissa Kursi Ka on the excesses of the Emergency years, was the Congress MP from this seat in 1967 and 1971. The Barmer seat was won by the Congress' Ram Niwas Mirdha in 1991, and Sona Ram Chaudhary, a retired colonel, in 1996, 1998 and 1999. Chaudhary lost to another retired colonel, Manvendra Singh of the BJP, in 2004.

A decade later, Sona Ram, then with the BJP, defeated Manvendra's father, former Union minister Jaswant Singh, who contested as an Independent after being sacked by the BJP over his book on Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In 2019, Kailash Choudhary defeated Manvendra Singh, who contested as a Congress candidate. Singh is back in the BJP fold now.

In the December 2023 Assembly polls, the BJP won five of the eight Assembly seats that fall in the Barmer Lok Sabha constituency. Two seats went to independents – one of them Bhati – and the Congress bagged one.