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Rajasthan crisis: Accused held by SOG shared proximities with BJP, Congress
Sanjay Jain, who belongs to Loonkaransar town in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district, is a power broker and is perceived to be close to both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
The special operations group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police arrested Sanjay Jain alias Sanjay Bardia late at night on Friday on charges of toppling the Congress-led government.
Earlier in the day, Jain was called for questioning on the basis of the Rajasthan chief whip Mahesh Joshi’s complaint that he was one of the three persons, whose names figured in three audiotapes that had surfaced the previous evening and were purportedly involved in horse-trading to dislodge the Ashok Gehlot-led government.
Jain, who belongs to Loonkaransar town in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district, is a power broker and is perceived to be close to both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
Jain, whom the Congress has accused of being a BJP leader, is a former block president of Indian Youth Congress.
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His father, too, was a local Congress leader and his family have been a supporter of the party for almost a decade, said a Congress supporter from Bikaner, requesting anonymity.
“Jain was also appointed as the secretary of the district rural Congress in Bikaner. He came in contact with Congress leadership in 1993, when Balram Jakhar was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) from Bikaner and he became a close aide to the veteran Congress leader. Jakhar would stay in his house, whenever he visited Loonkaransar, as his home was the only place in town that had an air-conditioner,” said the supporter quoted above.
He said Jain was often spotted at Raj Bhavan in Bhopal, when Jakhar became the governor of Madhya Pradesh (MP).
A close friend of Jain said that after coming in touch with the former chief minister and BJP leader Vasundhra Raje during the 2003 assembly elections, Jain moved to Jaipur, which helped him to expand his network in political circles -- cutting across party lines -- and also bureaucracy.
Also read: BJP demands CBI probe into audio tapes released by Congress amid Rajasthan crisis
“Jain has developed enormous contacts in both the Congress and the BJP using his immense network skills. He owns a beverage factory in Dubai and was planning a similar venture on his plot along the Bikaner-Jaipur highway near Sikar. His primary focus is to become rich,” his friend said.
Jain has uploaded several pictures on social media flaunting his proximity with BJP leaders.
Laxman Kadwasara, the former district president of Congress, Bikaner (rural), said Jain is more interested in expanding his business than politics.
“Though I haven’t met him in the last few years, but I keep hearing a lot about him,” said Kadwasara.
State BJP president Satish Poonia alleged that Jain is a Congress leader. “He has been a block president of Congress in Bikaner,” he said.
A SOG official said that Jain had come to Jaipur from Bikaner on Thursday amid the high political drama over the fate of the Gehlot government.
