Nihal Chand Chauhan also known as Nihal Chand Meghwal (born 4 February 1971) is an Indian politician belonging to the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

Early life

Nihal Chand was born to Bega Ram Chauhan, a two-time M.P of Ganganagar and Surji Devi into

Meghwal The Meghwal (also known as Megh and Meghraj) people live primarily in northwest India, with a small population in Pakistan. Their traditional occupation was agricultural farming, cattle-herding and weaving. Meghwals are known for their contr ...

community. He completed B.A from Shri Nehru S.P Evening College at Bikaner, Rajasthan. He married Jyoti Chauhan in 1992.

Political career

In 1995, at the age of 24, Nihal Chand was elected as the "''Panchayat Director''" of Nanuwala, Sardarpura Bika and Bagicha. He was also elected as the ''pradhan'' (chief) of the

Raisinghnagar Raisinghnagar is a town and a municipality (Tehsil) in Sri Ganganagar district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The town is surrounded by fertile land. It also corresponds to the Raisinghnagar constituency in the Rajasthan Assembly. Demogra ...

panchayat The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical ment ...

committee. In 1996, he became the youngest

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) from Rajasthan at the age of 25. He was elected to the

11th Lok Sabha General elections were held in India in 1996 Indian general election, April–May 1996 to elect the members of the 11th Lok Sabha. The result of the election was a hung parliament, which would see three Prime Ministers in two years and force t ...

(lower house of the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...

) on a BJP ticket from Ganganagar. In the next general election in 1998, he was defeated by Shankar Pannu of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

. After his defeat in the general election, Nihal Chand contested the

Rajasthan Legislative Assembly The Rajasthan Legislative Assembly or the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the Indian states and territories of India, state of Rajasthan. The assembly meets at Vidhana Bhavan situated in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan ...

elections. He was declared as BJP's candidate from Raisinghnagar. However, just before the elections, BJP formed an alliance with Haryana Rastriya Lokdal (HRLD), and gave that seat to HRLD. Nihal Chand was asked to withdraw his candidature, but he refused to do so. As a result, BJP expelled him. Contesting on the BJP election symbol, Nihal Chand won the seat and became an MLA from Raisinghnagar. Subsequently, Nihal Chand won the 1999 and 2004 general elections from Ganganagar as a BJP candidate. In 2008, he lost the Assembly elections to Daulat Raj of Congress from Raisinghnagar. In 2009, he lost the Indian general elections to

Bharat Ram Meghwal Bharat Ram Meghwal (born 11 January 1956) is an Indian politician belonging to the Indian National Congress. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Ganganagar Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Ki ...

of Congress. In 2014, he defeated Bhanwarlal Meghwal of Congress on the same seat. He served as a Minister of state (MOS) in the Cabinet of Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

from May 2014 to July 2016.

Controversy

In 2011, Nihal Chand's name appeared as one of the 17 accused in a police

FIR Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family (biology), family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North America, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The ...

. The complainant, a woman from

Sirsa, Haryana Sirsa is a city and a municipal council in Sirsa district in the westernmost region of the Indian state of Haryana, bordering Punjab and Rajasthan. It is located in Thar desert. It is located 250 kilometres north-west of New Delhi and 260 kilome ...

, alleged that her husband Om Prakash Godara had drugged her and then let his associates rape her in

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...

. After a year of investigation, the police closed the case in 2012, calling the charges as false and fabricated. The woman approached the

trial court A trial court or court of first instance is a court having original jurisdiction, in which trials take place. Appeals from the decisions of trial courts are usually made by higher courts with the power of appellate review (appellate courts). Mos ...

, which accepted the police report and dismissed the protest petition filed by her. The woman then approached the district court, which also dismissed the charges. In 2014, a few days after Nihal Chand was made the minister, the complainant went in for revision, following which the district court issued notices to Nihal Chand and 16 others, asking them to respond to the court. This caused a controversy, with the opposition party Congress demanding Nihal Chand's resignation. BJP refused to oblige, pointing out that Nihalchand was given a "clean chit" in the case when Congress was in power in Rajasthan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nihalchand 1971 births Living people Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Rajasthan India MPs 1996–1997 India MPs 1999–2004 India MPs 2004–2009 India MPs 2014–2019 India MPs 2019–present People from Sri Ganganagar Lok Sabha members from Rajasthan Narendra Modi ministry