Jaipur: Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) chief and winner of the Nagaur Lok Sabha seat, Hanuman Beniwal, has expressed his disappointment for not being invited to the INDIA bloc meeting in Delhi.
The Congress-led INDIA bloc on Wednesday held its first meeting after its impressive gains in Lok Sabha election results 2024. RLP is part of the INDIA alliance.
In the recently concluded Lok Sabha results, Beniwal won the Nagaur Lok Sabha seat by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha with a margin of 42,225 votes.
Out of the total 25 seats, the BJP secured 14, the Congress won eight, and INDIA bloc partners Communist Party of India (Marxist), RLP, and Bharat Adivasi Party won one seat each.
Expressing resentment over not being called for the INDIA bloc meeting in Delhi, Beniwal said, “The meeting was held twice – on June 1 and June 5 in which I was not invited. Why was I not invited? When small parties from the south were invited, why was Hanuman Beniwal not invited?”
He said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge talked to him over the phone on Thursday and apologised for not inviting him to the meeting.
{{/usCountry}}He said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge talked to him over the phone on Thursday and apologised for not inviting him to the meeting.
{{/usCountry}}“If such a mistake is made, then it is a blunder. Every single MP is needed in the country, and people like Hanuman Beniwal are forgotten. Congress should celebrate that the INDIA bloc has brought 11 seats in Rajasthan, but do we (RLP) not have a role in bringing 11? I got three lakh votes of Congress, but 20 lakh votes of RLP went to Congress, due to which they got so many seats,” he said.
Beniwal further accused the Congress of breaking his party. He alleged that the Congress party got its leader Ummedaram Beniwal to quit RLP in Barmer and made him the Congress candidate. “On one hand, they were talking of alliance with me, and on the other hand, they were breaking my party,” he said.
He, however, dismissed any rumours of joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and affirmed his commitment to remain in the INDIA bloc.
Ummedaram Beniwal left RLP and joined Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. He won the Barmer seat, defeating Union minister and BJP candidate Kailash Chaudhary.
Hanuman won the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Nagaur as an RLP candidate in alliance with the BJP but left the NDA fold in December 2020 over the farm laws issue. This time, he contested from Nagaur as an INDIA bloc partner.
Following Hanuman’s remarks, senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot expressed optimism about the alliance’s future. Commenting on the development, Pilot stated, “Whoever is in the INDIA bloc is there, and today they remain part of the alliance. I believe that in the coming time, more will join the alliance.”