CP Joshi: News

Born on July 29, 1950, CP Joshi, is a stalwart politician in Rajasthan and is affiliated with the Indian National Congress. As of 2021, he is the 15th Speaker of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly. A lawyer by profession, Joshi worked as a lecturer at the University College of Social Sciences & Humanities, Udaipur, before entering politics. He entered politics at the behest of Mohan Lal Sukhadia, who is the founder of modern Mewar. In 1973, he was elected as the president of the student union at the Mohanlal Sukhadia University. In 1980, he entered the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly from the Nathdwara constituency. He won the Nathdwara seat five times in 1985, 1998, 2003, and 2018. In 1998, he was inducted into the state cabinet and handled portfolios under various departments including education, rural development, Panchayati raj, groundwater, and public health engineering. He served as the leader of opposition in the state assembly in 2003. Later the same year he was appointed as the president of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee. He played a big role in Congress’s historic win in the 2008 Rajasthan assembly elections, however, he lost his own constituency by one vote to Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kalyan Singh Chauhan. He entered Lok Sabha for the first time in 2009 from the Bhilwara constituency. Between 2009 and 2014, he served as the Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Minister of Railways, and Minister of Road Transport and Highways under the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh government. Joshi has also served as the two-time president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA).