Nihalchand Begaram Meghwal

Political career

In 1995, at the age of 24, Nihalchand was elected as the "Panchayat Director" of Nanuwala, Sardarpura Bika and Bagicha. He was also got elected as the pradhan (chief) of the Raisinghnagar panchayat committee. In 1996, he became the youngest Member of Parliament (MP) from Rajasthan at the age of 25. He was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket from Ganganagar, Rajasthan. In the next general election in 1998, he was defeated by Shankar Pannu of Congress.

After his defeat in the general election, Nihalchand contested the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly 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. Nihalchand was asked to withdraw his candidature, but he refused to do so. As a result, BJP expelled him. Contesting on the BJP election symbol, Nihalchand won the seat and became an MLA from Raisinghnagar.

Subsequently, Nihalchand 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 by a margin of 5042 votes. In 2009, he lost the general elections to Bharat Ram Meghwal 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 from May 2014 to July 2016.