A group photo taken at the BJP office here ahead of the legislature party meeting earlier this week showed Bhajan Lal Sharma in the very last row.

But an hour or so later, he had jumped places to front and centre stage after the BJP announced that he has been chosen as the leader of the Rajasthan legislature party.

Bhajan Lal Sharma, 56, was today sworn in as chief minister, three decades after his first appointment as a public figure – the sarpanch of a village in Bharatpur district.

Bhajan Lal Sharma, a general secretary in the BJP’s state unit and a first-time MLA from Jaipur’s Sanganer constituency, has kept a low profile in the party.

Considered a hardcore RSS man, Bhajan Lal 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 for this.

That was around the beginning of his political career. He has been a village sarpanch twice, starting at the age of 27.

Over the past 30 years, Mr Sharma has held various posts in the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and in the party organisation.

He went to school in the Bharatpur district’s Atari village and Nadbai town.

Later, he joined the RSS-affiliate Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and also took up social causes in Nabadi and Bharatpur.