Jat Community and politics
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Introduction
1950s-2017
Shyamlal Yadav, January 31, 2022: The Indian Express
From: Shyamlal Yadav, January 31, 2022: The Indian Express
Who are the Jats?
The census of 1891 recorded 1,791 different communities of Jats, and K S Singh, editor of the People of India series, noted “there are Hindu, Muslim and Sikh Jat”, and “these divisions regulate their marriage alliances”. Jats are a predominantly farming community who are mostly concentrated in Haryana, UP, Delhi, and Rajasthan today.
Jats want to be included among the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the central list. In states such as UP, Rajasthan, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, they are already categorised as OBC. Jats of Rajasthan — except those in Dholpur and Bharatpur — are also OBC in the central list.
Jats are a politically powerful community, and can influence the results of nearly 40 Lok Sabha seats and around 160 Assembly seats in UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi. In UP, they are concentrated in the western districts, mainly cultivate sugarcane, and are the state’s richest farming community.
Who have been their prominent leaders ?
In the 1950s and 60s, Devi Lal and Ranbir Singh Hooda (father of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda) were prominent Jat leaders of (undivided) Punjab. In Rajasthan, there was Nathuram Mirdha, and in UP, Chaudhary Charan Singh.
After the creation of Haryana in 1966, leaders such as Bansi Lal emerged. Jats are more than 25 per cent in Haryana, and have long dominated its politics.
Until his demise in 1987, Charan Singh remained among the tallest Jat leaders of the country, who had a following among other castes too. He was Chief Minister of UP twice, Deputy Prime Minister and, for a little less than six months in 1979-80, Prime Minister.
In UP, Charan Singh led the farmer communities away from both the Congress and Bharatiya Jana Sangh, precursor of the BJP, which had a large number of MLAs from these communities after the elections of 1967.
Charan Singh’s political legacy was inherited by his son Ajit Singh, but the arrival of Mandal and Hindutva fundamentally changed politics in UP — and the Jats under Ajit Singh made several adjustments to remain relevant over the next quarter century.
Where is the Jat vote in UP?
The community has significant influence in a dozen Lok Sabha and around 40 Assembly seats in Western UP. They are estimated to comprise between 10 and 15 per cent of the population in some 15 districts, but are socially dominant, vocal, and have the capacity to build a political atmosphere. Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Meerut, Bijnore, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Mathura, Aligarh, Hathras, Agra and Moradabad have significant Jat populations. Smaller numbers live in Rampur, Amroha, Saharanpur, and Gautam Budh Nagar. Jats in UP have by and large thrown their lot with the ruling party. The political base created by Charan Singh was harnessed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, and a large section of Jats switched to the BJP during the last decade.
In the Assembly elections of 2022, 58 seats in the districts of Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Gautam Budh Nagar, Aligarh, Mathura, and Agra will vote on February 10 in the first phase.
In the second phase on February 14, 55 seats will go to polls, spread over the districts of Bijnore, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Amroha, Bareilly, Badayun, and Shahjahanpur. The bulk of the seats going to polls in these two phases are Jat dominated.
What was Ajit Singh’s political career like?
Chaudhary Ajit Singh, the IIT-educated son of Charan Singh, switched sides frequently to remain relevant in national and UP politics.
He joined V P Singh’s government, but defected to the Congress in 1995 and joined P V Narasimha Rao’s government. In the Lok Sabha election of 1996, he won from Baghpat as a Congress candidate, but resigned from Parliament the following year and formed his own Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar Party (BKKP). In the Lok Sabha election of 1998, Ajit Singh lost his traditional Baghpat seat.
In 1999, he formed the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) which won two seats in the Lok Sabha election of that year — Baghpat and adjoining Kairana. It retained these seats in 2004. Ajit Singh had been part of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ministry, and he tried to join the Manmohan Singh government, but that did not materialise for several years.
The RLD went back to an alliance with the BJP in 2009, contested nine seats, and won five. But in 2011, Ajit Singh joined the ministry of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The next two Lok Sabha elections were disastrous for the RLD, and both Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary lost. Ajit Singh passed away from Covid-19 last year.
How did the Jats do in UP in the Mandal-kamandal years?
The BKKP was Ajit Singh’s ninth political switch. In the UP elections of 1996, he sought the support of farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, and entered into a seat adjustment with Mulayam Singh’s SP. He contested 38 seats but won just eight. The RLD fought the 2002 elections in alliance with the BJP, and won 14 of the 38 seats it contested. It joined the BJP-BSP government headed by Mayawati, but the RLD’s alliance with the BJP broke soon afterward.
When Mulayam Singh took oath in 2003, Ajit Singh’s MLAs joined the government. But again, only a few months before the UP elections of 2007, the RLD pulled out of Mulayam’s government.
Post 2007, the RLD steadily lost relevance as voters of UP gave clear mandates — to the BSP in 2007, SP in 2012, and BJP in 2017. In the BSP wave of 2007, the RLD contested 254 seats and won only 10. In 2012, when Ajit Singh was Union Civil Aviation Minister, the RLD fought with the Congress, and won just nine seats.
The Jat vote
MUCH ADO ABOUT JAT VOTE?
Community Must Prove It Is Critical To Parties Who Invested In Them
Subodh Ghildiyal | TNN
2008: Mahendra Singh Tikait vs. Mayawati
New Delhi: Date: April 1-2. Year 2008: That was when a battle of wits that pitted Jat stalwart Mahendra Singh Tikait against dalit icon Mayawati broke out.
Tikait had hurled a caste slur against the then CM and found policemen snapping at his heels. He smirked and dug himself in at Muzaffarnagar’s Sisauli village with clansmen and loyalists, brazenly challenging the state. An unrelenting Mayawati dispatched a 6,000-strong force to lay siege to the village. For two days UP worried bullets would rain and blood would flow.
The confrontation ended in a whimper. A chastened Tikait apologized and made up with Mayawati calling her his daughter, “beti”. That surrender shrank the Tikait’s stature. In social discourse, a dalit – weakest placed in feudal West UP – had called the bluff of the dominant Jats. This was a watershed moment. Observers called it “righting of the demographics” – 3.6% of UP’s population that had appeared so disproportionately large because of its social clout, had been found out.
2009: vs. Ashok Gehlot’s Cogress government in Rajasthan
Not that the community was any less helpless in Rajasthan and Haryana where it has more impressive numbers. In 2009, Jats declared war on Ashok Gehlot’s Cogress government in Rajasthan. Yet Cogress won the state and parliamentary polls without much sweat. So did Cogress in successive Haryana polls against Jat leader of standing OP Chautala heading INLD.
For a good decade, Jats raised the pitch to regain relevance in their strongholds but were shown up, their political chip in a tailspin.
2013 and after
Come 2014 and the wheels seem to be turning again. Once again, there’s a Jat buzz – they’re dominating headlines, political parties are lining up to placate them like UPA granting them national OBC status. They’re being talked about as a swing bloc that can shape fortunes in Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and West UP.
Between their marginalization and return to centre stage lies, as ironic as it is tragic, the Muzaffarnagar riots [of 2013]. “The riots caught the imagination of the political class (BJP, RLD and Cogress),” Jawaharlal Nehru University sociologist Vivek Kumar explains. He seems to be alluding to the reason that made Jats enjoy outsized importance postindependence – the ability to “influence” voting of communities lower in the social or economic order.
The riots showed Jats turning against the historical religious mix of west UP villages. If Jats and Muslims are antagonistic, the “secular” RLD that polls both blocs together crumbles. It provides an opening to BJP that thrives on religious consolidation.
No wonder, BJP toasted its leaders accused of engineering the clashes. The “secular” RLD sought an antidote in “job quotas” to quell Jat anger. The rush for Jat attention brought the community back from oblivion and the community is relishing this newfound salience. It cleverly coupled its grievances against the Centre to the riot debate and RLD chief Ajit Singh pushed “quota” as the corrective. “It’s the ‘riots cause’ and the ‘reservation effect’,” a leader explained.
Even as the community savours the importance, one cannot help the doubts about their “swing” factor. Experts argue BSP has reworked West UP caste equations irreversibly. Marrying of dalit votes with Muslims, backward groups like Gujjars and the ‘most backwards’ weaning them away from the traditional Jat grouping has dented the latter’s clout.
Social engineering and the Jats’ ability to win elections
Sample this: In 2007, 16 Jats were elected to UP assembly. Five years later, after Mayawati worked on social engineering minus Jats, community MLAs were down to 4.
With the Muzaffarnagar riots increasingly seen as limited to Jats, many feel they may not bring the wider Hindu consolidation BJP is banking on. Just as few think the OBC status would soften the community’s anti-Cogress mood in Delhi and Rajasthan or stop Haryana Jats from rooting for Chautala or BJP.
Therein is the test of Jats this election – of proving their criticality to each group that has invested in them. They know another failure to prove political heft at the hustings may push them down the slope of irrelevance.
2016
The Times of India, Feb 21 2016
Subodh Ghildiyal
Waning political clout driving affluent Jats' quota stir
The incendiary Jat protest in Haryana for OBC quota has put into sharp relief what a perception of loss of political power coupled with perceived or legitimate grievances can spark off in contemporary identity politics. The push from the powerful and resourceful community has brought BJP's Khattar government to its knees. It is significant that the epicentre of protests is Rohtak, not just because it is the hub of Jat power but also home to former CM Bhupinder Hooda, Congress' Jat hegemon who was replaced by a Punjabi Khattar.
Hooda's decision, after appealing for peace, to go on fast also indicates that Congress might see an opening to regain relevance with the Jat agitation severely disrupting normal life in Haryana.
The demand for OBC quotas is old hat, given willingly in the state by an obliging Ho oda regime before being stalled by the high court. The judicial veto exacerbated the sense of hurt because by then the Supreme Court had also nixed the inclusion of the community in the central list of OBCs. It all seems to have made for a deadly mix when coupled with the feeling that they have lost political power in the state after 2014.
Jats are the landed ruling class of Haryana, with an enormous hold over finances and resources, and are advanced educationally and professionally . They also ha ve a high share of the state population, thereby ensuring their stamp is unmissable. They are well represented in government jobs.
But by the community's logic, they are an agrarian group on a par with Yadavs and Gujjars and cannot be treated differently. Also, they are classified as OBCs in neighbouring Delhi, Rajasthan as well as UP. This argument, however, ignores the lesser sta tus enjoyed by Jats in UP and Rajasthan as compared to their dominance in Haryana.
It is a measure of the community's coercive power that the Khattar government has announced it would call a special assembly session to legislate in favour of their demand.The method of dispensing quota could be creation of a new group of “special OBCs“ or including them in the OBC list.
But both the quota routes are loaded with uncertainty , since adding a new group may exceed the 50% reservation ceiling and invite judicial injunction, while putting Jats in the OBC list would anger existing backwards who would view it as an encroachment.
To observers, the upping of the ante by Jats is not an isolated case but part of a nationwide pattern whereby do minant upper castes are demanding classification as OBCs. If it is the Patidars, byname for business and enterprise, in Gujarat, it is the resourceful Kapus in Andhra Pradesh, the royal Marathas in Maharashtra; even Ahoms in Assam are seeking ST status.
Sociologists say job quota apart, the larger gameplan of these castes is to capture political power which they have lost over the years as forward castes.
For some time now, the panchayats and local bodies in states have had OBC quotas. Also, while the assembly and Parliament don't have OBC quotas, these communities as part of the Mandal bloc and with established financial and social clout, would be stronger claimants for tickets than other OBCs.
Haryana
March 2016: Jat quota Bill passed
The Times of India, Mar 30, 2016
Ajay Sura
Jat quota Bill passed in House, headed for court
Haryana assembly unanimously passed the controversial Jat reservation bill, providing quota to community under a newly-carved-out backward class (C) category. Five other communities - Jat Sikh, Muslim Jat, Bishnoi, Ror and Tyagi - have also been included in the new category and they would be entitled for 10% reservation in government services and admission in educational institutions. The bill - Haryana Backward Classes (reservation in services and admission in educational institutions) Bill 2016 - was passed unanimously within a few minutes after it was presented in the House. Given the controversy over the quota issue in Haryana, the new bill is likely to be challenged in the high court after the governor signs it. The Haryana government, however, has clarified that the benefit of the newly-carved-out BC (C) category would be available only for non-creamy layer candidates. For this, the government would soon come out with income slab and those above this level would not be entitled for quota. Khattar said the state government would review the income criterion after every three years. BJP government, led by Manohar Lal Khattar, also passed a resolutions urging the Centre to place the new bill in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution to shield it from legal scrutiny. This is for the first time that the Haryana assembly passed a bill providing reservation to the Jat community, which has been demanding it for the past 25 years and held several agitations for this. The previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had also provided 10% reservation to Jats at the fag-end of its tenure but it had not completed the requisite legal formalities before notifying the decision. The notification issued by Hooda in 2013 was stayed by Punjab and Haryana high court as it was notified without enacting any law in the Assembly. The new bill is based on the reports of Justice Gurnam Singh commission and Justice K C Gupta commission that had recommended reservation for the community in 1991 and 2012, respectively. As many as 30 people had lost their lives, 324 were injured and property worth crores was destroyed in the state last month during the community's agitation for quota. Jat leaders had also given an ultimatum to the state government till March 31 to pass the bill or face another agitation. Legal experts, however, believed that the decision would come under judicial scanner as Haryana has already exceeded the 50% ceiling for reservation fixed by the Supreme Court.
Haryana second state to have more than 50% reservation
After Tamil Nadu, Haryana has become the second state in the country to have more than 50% reservation in government jobs and admission in educational institutions. Earlier, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan had reservation beyond 50% but all of them were stayed by courts. Tamil Nadu is still having quota beyond 50% limit as it has the immunity under 9th Schedule of the Constitution. Khattar government has requested the Centre to include the new Act under the 9th Schedule to avoid legal scrutiny. Legal experts on the new law "The provisions of Haryana's bill are subject to challenge, as the reservation has crossed the limit of 50%, as a nine-judge bench of the apex court has already made it clear that reservation cannot be provided beyond 50%," said N S Bhindar, former additional director (prosecution), Haryana. "Legislature is within its right to pass such bills considering the special circumstances to uplift socially and economically backward classes in the state. I believe that if legislature decides considering special circumstances in the state, it can make provisions for reservation beyond 50%. Even if it's challenged before the court, the government has strong and special grounds to defend it," said K S Dhaliwal, senior high court advocate. "Present bill is better than earlier government's notification on two points. First, it's a legislative enactment and secondly a formation of a separate backward commission. However, present bill is also not free from vulnerability as it can be challenged in SC being in violation of Indira Sawhney case and unless protection under 9th schedule of Constitution is not given, it cannot escape judicial review," said Ravinder Singh Dhull, advocate of Punjab and Haryana high court.
QUOTES
"We are satisfied with Haryana government's decision, as it would help Jat community get reservation under OBC quota at Centre. We also expect Khattar government to pursue with Centre to include new bill under 9th Schedule so that the reservation can be protected from being challenged," said Hawa Singh Sangwan, senior leader of Jat agitation movement.
"We are excited after the new bill and thankful to the state government for fulfilling our long-pending demand to provide quota for Jat community in the state," Sube Singh Samain, spokesperson of Sarv Khap Panchayat, Haryana. "The government has deprived Jats and five other communities by providing only 6% reservation in recruitment of class-I and Class-II, while we had requested to provide them 12% reservation in this category. We have called our national executive meeting in Delhi on April 3 to discuss the bill, and any response to the new bill would be announced only after that meeting," said Yash Pal Malik, president of Akhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti.
Uttar Pradesh
UP districts with the highest Jat concentration
See graphic:
UP districts with the highest Jat concentration
Political importance of the Jats, as in 2022
Pankaj Shah, February 10, 2022: The Times of India
From: Pankaj Shah, February 10, 2022: The Times of India
Lucknow: From the widest of angles, the mostly agrarian Jat community makes up just a fraction of Uttar Pradesh’s population at a little less than 2%. Zoom in for a better view. Union home minister Amit Shah hosts them and launches a doorto-door campaign in their stronghold. The Yogi Adityanath government brings all its efforts to resurrect their icons. The Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance is banking on them for a shot at the crown.
What makes 2% of UP’s 20 crore people (2011 Census figures) such a sought-after bloc for politicians ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, or for that matter any election? It is all in the numbers and the scramble for their votes speaks for itself: the close-knit community of mostly farmers is one of the most influential groups in western Uttar Pradesh. The reason wasn’t hard to find when CM Yogi Adityanath on January 31 invoked 17th century Jat warrior Gokul Singh, who fought Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. A revered figure in west UP and Haryana, Gokul was resurrected by BJP to renew its 2017 script of consolidating Jats, whose ties with the religious mi- nority community got strained after 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal riots. For their part, allies SP and RLD are trying to reunite the winsome Jat-minority community combo — the two groups dominating west UP’s political landscape. BJP has more legends to fall back on — like Jat freedom fighter Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh on whose name the foundation of a university in Aligarh was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September last year. Raja Mahendra ruled the small principality of Mursan in Hathras district, and is said to have given land for Aligarh Muslim University.
The please-Jat political one-upmanship has upset several Jats. Akhil Bharatiya Jat Mahasabha member Chaudhary Digambar Singh said Jats are “an emotional and hardworking community” and “attempts are being made unfortu- nately to turn it into a votebank by political parties”. He criticised BJP’s attempt to give Jats a “solely Hindu identity” to separate them from the minority community. “They all are farmers. Anger is brewing against BJP over farming issues,” said Singh from Bijnor.
BJP politicians see no wrong in giving Jat legendary figures their due. “What’s wrong with it? What Jats did hundreds of years ago is now being done by BJP,” said Antul Tewatia, the BJP-backed chairperson of Bulandshahr zila panchayat. State BJP secretary Chandra Mohan said it is the party’s duty to respect historical figures who contributed to India’s nationalism.
Jats emerged as an influential voting class when former Prime Minister and Uttar Pradesh CM Chaudhary Charan Singh rallied them around him after he left Congress and formed Bharatiya Kranti Dal in the late 1960s. After his death, his son and former RLD president Ajit Singh carried forward the legacy. But BJP’s rise in 2014 pushed RLD to the margins — Ajit and son Jayant Chaudhary lost the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. BJP won 51 of 71 assembly seats in the core western Uttar Pradesh region in the 2017 assembly elections.
When Ajit died of Covid-19 last year, Jayant took the shovel to regain lost ground and allied with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. An alert BJP responded swiftly — firing volleys at the alliance, such as accusing it of fielding candidates with a criminal background. Amit Shah told Jayant that he was with the wrong company, but the Jat politician refused to bite the bait. RLD tried to corner BJP, saying the party was ignoring the region’s other important communities like Gujjars and Sainis. “They want to speak of just one caste. We speak for anyone who is a farmer. We are not affected by BJP’s divisive agenda,” said RLD national secretary Anil Dubey.
Punching above the weight/ 2024
Pankaj Shah1, April 12, 2024: The Times of India
From: Pankaj Shah1, April 12, 2024: The Times of India
Their firepower is way above their numerical strength. No party can afford to ignore them in west UP. When PM Narendra Modi announced Bharat Ratna for tallest Jat leader Chaudhary Charan Singh, it was a bid to win over the community the BJP had been trying to since 2014.
Besides, despite its facile wins in the state in the past four elections, BJP was desperate to have Chaudhary’s grandson Jayant on its side. It finally managed to do so. The agrarian Jats make up for barely 2% of UP electorate but by their sheer influence, they decide the outcome in 10 west UP seats. Their financial muscle means they influence other castes in the region.
Jats were consolidated into an influential voting class by former Chaudhary, a former PM and exCM of UP, who formed Bhartiya Kranti Dal in late 1960s, after leaving Congress. After his death, Chaudhary’s legacy was taken forward by his son and former RLD chief late Ajit Singh. But BJP’s rise in 2014 LS elections meant decimation of RLD with both party founder Ajit and his son, Jayant Chaudhary, losing in Baghpat and Mathura, respectively. In 2019 LS elections, too, the duo faced another rout—in Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat.
Analysts said BJP found strong support among Jats after the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots when the community fell out with the Muslims. BJP’s bid to woo Jats continued and before the 2022 assembly polls, Modi laid the foundation of a university named after Jat freedom fighter Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh in Aligarh. Later, CM Yogi Adityanath invoked Gokul Singh, a 17th century Jat warrior who fought Mughal king Aurangzeb; his observation was not off the cuff. A revered figure even in neighbouring Haryana, Gokul was resurrected by BJP to renew its 2017 script of consolidating Jats.
However, BJP’s grip on Jat votes loosened a bit. “Our empirical study shows 91% of the community supported BJP in 2019. This dropped to 71% in 2022 assembly polls,” said Prof AK Verma, director of Centre for Study of Society and Politics. He blamed the erosion on farmers’ protest and demand for reservation for Jats.
The vote share of RLD surged from 1.8% in 2017 to 2.9% in 2022 assembly elections. Its tally, too, rose from one to eight MLAs. Alarm bells rang when SP-backed RLD candidate Madan Bhaiyya defeated BJP’s Rajkumari Saini in Khatauli bypoll in Dec 2022, raising the party’s strength to nine MLAs. This was in sharp contrast to what happened between 2009 and 2014, when RLD seats dropped from five to zero and vote share plummeted from 2.5% to 0.9%.
Jayant had started flexing muscles while being an SP ally, espe- cially during the 2022 assembly polls. Thanks to the alliance, RLD managed to consolidate Jat and Muslim votes on many seats.
Sources said that the BJP thinktank went back to the drawing board to minimise the dent SP-RLD combine — a key constituent of INDIA bloc — could have inflicted in the forthcoming polls.
BJP came up with a possible solution: wean RLD away from the opposition group and make it a prominent constituent of NDA. Sources said that a prominent Jat leader, who has also been a governor of a state, came in handy. He, along with a young minister in the Modi cabinet, worked behind the curtains to convince Jayant to break ties with SP and join the saffron fold.
Finally, BJP made an offer Jayant couldn’t refuse—besides Bharat Ratna to the patriarch, RLD was to get two ministerial berths in UP cabinet, two LS seats and a berth in the state’s upper House. Jayant, who is a Rajya Sabha member with SP support, might get a berth in Modi cabinet if NDA forms govt.
RLD national secretary Anupam Mishra said party decisions were driven by ground-level feedback. “We decided to align with BJP to mobilise different communities,” he said. RLD insiders maintain the party also wanted to remain relevant in west UP while “striking the best possible deal” with BJP. RLD managed to send Yogesh Chaud- hary, another Jat leader, to legislative council besides getting its Purkazi MLA Anil Kumar, a Dalit, inducted in UP cabinet.
SP spokesperson Sudhir Panwar said BJP has been conspiring to split Jats and make them electorally irrelevant. “We give adequate prominence to the community,” he said, adding that SP has fielded Harendra Malik from Muzaffarnagar and plans to field another Jat from Baghpat.
Experts said RLD’s restricted influence in west UP has been prompting it to go in for “opportunistic” politics, as pursued by party founder Ajit Singh. “Jayant too seems to consider that RLD is better off in alliance with BJP,” said Prof SK Pandey, head of political science department at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University.
He said that with BJP, RLD may lose Muslims, but it would gain “Hindu votes (OBC and Dalit included). The apparently split Jat vote would consolidate into one larger bloc and could pay off well in Punjab and Haryana,” he noted.
Prominent Jat politicians
THE TOP GUNS
Charan Singh
A towering leader who rose to become PM, credited with forging backward class unity that found an echo across states
Mahendra Singh Tikait
Powerful farmer leader of west UP. Massive Delhi Boat Club stir in Oct 1988 took him to national stage
Devi Lal
Tau to masses, he held Janata Dal together while making VP Singh PM in 1989. Known for his earthiness, he became Dy PM
Kumbha Ram
Went on to become a top Cogress leader from Rajasthan
Nathu Ram Mirdha
Influential among his people, he went on to become a top Rajasthan Cogress leader
