India’s first-ever minister holding the charge of ‘Gaupalan department’ , Otaram Dewasi, 48, is Rajasthan’s minister in charge of cow affairs loses to independent candidate Sanyam Lodha with a margin of 10,253 votes. Mr. Dewasi bagged 71,019 votes, while Mr. Lodha got 81,272 votes.
Lodha was a member of the Congress before he decided to contest the 2018 Assembly elections on his own as an independent candidate.
Dewasi, also called ‘Bhopajj’ (meaning: priest) by his tribesmen, dresses up like a cowherd with a long white cloth on his bare torso, red turban, dangling ear rings and a lathi in hand. He walks like this everywhere, even in the office of Vasundhara Raje, Chief Minister of Rajasthan.
BJP and Raje had promised a separate ministry for cows in its poll manifesto. And with Raje’s victory as CM in December 2013, a separate ministry was created for the protection of bovine considered to hold spiritual importance.
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