Bachelors have a bright future in BJP: Chattisgarh minister

NEW DELHI: Chhattisgarh Labour and Sports Minister Bhaiyalal Rajwade caused a flutter when he said bachelors enjoy a good run in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"Bachelors have a bright future in this party (BJP). You can see for yourself — the Prime Minister is a bachelor, several chief ministers are bachelors, as are many other ministers," Rajwade observed.



The minister was speaking on the occassion of party colleague Dipak Patel's birth anniversary. Rajwade's remarks were directed at Patel, who is also a bachelor.

This isn't the first time that the singlehood of key BJP leaders has been the subject of jest. When PM Modi's shock announcement banning high value notes in November last year left thousands of families facing a cash crunch during the wedding season, yoga guru Baba Ramdev had put forth this theory.

"Many in the BJP are bachelors, they did not realise it was wedding season, that was the mistake," he had quipped.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bachelorhood is contentious, given that he was once married to Jashodaben, there are many other prominent singletons in the saffron party — Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, Haryana's Manohar Lal Khattar and Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, to name a few.

Former Prime Minister and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee never tied the knot. Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the ideological mentor of the BJP, is also unmarried like many RSS activists.

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(With inputs from ANI)