Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirodi Lal Meena has resigned from the Rajasthan Cabinet on July 4. Meena announced his resignation, from the state cabinet and all posts, at a public prayer meeting in Jaipur.
Meena had promised to step down if his party lost some key Lok Sabha seats, including his native Dausa, under his watch. The Congress won from Dausa seat in recently held Lok Sabha Elections 2024. “Kirodi Meena resigned as minister. He gave the resignation to the chief minister 10 days back,” the aide said.
The BJP, which is in power in the state, won 14 of 25 seats from Rajasthan in general elections 2024. The Congress improved its performance and won 8 seats, including Dausa. Three seats were bagged by other parties who are Congress allies.
The Lok Sabha Election 2024 results were announced on June 4.
In 2019 general elections, the BJP had won 24 seats while the Congress could not win any seats in Rajasthan. In 2014 too, the Congress could not win any seats in general elections from Rajasthan.
Seventy two-year-old Meena held multiple portfolios, including agriculture and horticulture, rural development, disaster management, relief and civil defence, and public charge resolution in the Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP government in Rajasthan. He won from Sawai Madhopur seat in last year’s assembly elections.
The BJP won the elections by bagging 115 of 200 constituencies and dislodged the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government. The Congress party won just 66 seats in the assembly polls.
Before counting of votes for the Lok Sabha election 2024, Meena had promised that he would quit if the BJP lost any of the seven seats in eastern Rajasthan assigned to him by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP lost four of the seven seats – Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa, and Tonk-Sawai Madhopur.
“There is no reason for resentment. I have resigned. I did not go to the recent cabinet meeting… I could (not) go morally,” Meena was quoted as saying by NDTV. Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma had tried to persuade the senior tribal leader to reconsider his decision, the NDTV report said.