• First-time MLA Bhajan Lal Sharma was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan in Jaipur on December 15.

• Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa were sworn in as the deputy chief ministers at the Albert Hall in Jaipur.

• Sharma, a BJP state general secretary, took charge as the CM on his 57th birthday.

• The BJP in Rajasthan won 115 seats in the November 25 Assembly elections, while the Congress got 69 seats. Polling was held on 199 of the 200 seats in the state.

• Sharma is from Bharatpur district and won the Sanganer constituency of Jaipur with a margin of 48,081 votes.

From village sarpanch to Rajasthan CM

• Bhajan Lal Sharma is one of the general secretaries in the state BJP.

• Sharma was actively involved in the agitation for the Ram temple in Ayodhya at the site where the Babri mosque stood. In 1992, he spent time in jail for this.

• That was around the beginning of his political career. He has also been a village sarpanch twice, starting at the age of 27.

• Over the past three decades, Sharma has held various posts in the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and in the party organisation.

• He joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), and also took up social causes in Nabadi and Bharatpur.

• Sharma then moved on to the BJYM, the BJP’s youth wing. He was BJYM’s district president thrice before becoming the parent party’s Bharatpur district secretary and its district president.

• Leaving Bharatpur for the BJP’s Rajasthan headquarters, Sharma became the party’s state vice president, and is now a general secretary in the state BJP.

• Sharma holds a master’s degree in political science.

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