Bhajan Lal Sharma: An unlikely rise from village sarpanch to Rajasthan CM

Bhajan Lal Sharma, 56, was on Friday sworn in as Rajasthan chief minister, three decades after his first appointment as a public figure – the sarpanch of a village in Bharatpur. A general secretary in the BJP's state unit and a first-time MLA from Jaipur's Sanganer constituency, he has kept a low profile in the party. Considered a hardcore RSS man, 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 too.