Mother of quadruplets elected unopposed to Jodhpur civic body
A mother of four children was elected unopposed in Jodhpur Municipal Corporation elections despite a law in Rajasthan restricting people having more than two children from contesting in local civic bodies polls in the state.
The rule came into force in 1995.
Sanju Solanki, 41, was elected unopposed from ward number five as a BJP candidate, her rival and Congress candidate Tara Bhati’s nomination papers were rejected as on the grounds that she had two children.
Bhati has three children, who were born before 1995, but the affidavit mentioned more than two children after 1995.
Nomination of an independent candidate Tara Parihar was also rejected on technical grounds. Solanki was exempted from the two-child norm as she gave birth to quadruplets, who were born together. The authorities considered her children “a single unit”.
Congress candidate Bhati was unlucky as the typist who prepared her affidavit forgotten to delete details from the previous document prepared for some other candidate.
Solanki said it was a double bonanza for her as she would be declared as a BJP corporator unopposed on the same day (November 22) as that of the birthday of her children, who she considers as her lucky charm. She said that her children Poorvaja, Piyush, Purvi and Pujita were born together, so the rule for disqualification for having more than two children did not apply on her.
Solanki had produced the copies of the law in this regard before the electoral officers during the scrutiny of the nomination papers. She had completed double post graduation in psychology and political science from the same university. Her husband is lab assistant in Ground water department.