On November 14, a day after a clash between his supporters and the Tonk police turned violent, 45-year-old Naresh Meena was finally arrested following a skirmish and some tense moments. A day before, visuals of burning vehicles on polling day seemed unusual for Rajasthan, where elections have been largely peaceful in the recent past.

Trouble began on polling day, November 13, after Congress rebel Meena who is an Independent candidate from the Deoli-Uniara Assembly bypoll slapped Sub-Divisional Magistrate Amit Chaudhary, accusing the latter of threatening and abusing people at a polling booth where locals were boycotting elections. Meena alleged that Chaudhary was working at the behest of the BJP.

The visuals led to an uproar, including from Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officers. But for Meena, who has had about two dozen police cases, this was nothing new. Since 2002, when the first police case was lodged against him, Meena has had quite a few cases filed against him for “assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his official duty.” Other charges against him include blocking highways and railway tracks, assault, damage to public property, inciteful speeches, and injuring police officials.

Meena was born into a political family in Nayagaon village of Baran district’s Atru tehsil. His father Kalyan Singh was a sarpanch for about three decades, while his mother is currently a sarpanch. Meena’s wife Sunita is a Zila Parishad member and his younger brother’s wife is a Panchayat Samiti member.

Meena started out in student politics, becoming the general secretary of Rajasthan University’s student union in the early 2000s as a candidate of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the Congress’s student wing. Over the years, Meena’s proximity to senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot grew and he was seen as a Pilot camp leader while also idolising the BJP’s Kirodi Lal Meena, a state Cabinet minister. Both Pilot and Kirodi Lal hold considerable influence in eastern Rajasthan.

Whether it is the Congress or the local administration, Meena has built a reputation of having a rebellious style reminiscent of Kirodi Lal, who is known as a rebel within the BJP and even the government – embarrassing it on a few occasions. Kirodi Lal did not hesitate to express himself publicly and often sat on protests under the previous Congress government.

Naresh Meena’s similar antics have earned him the sobriquet “Chhota Kirodi”. In 2017, he is said to have cut his thumb and applied a tilak on Kirodi’s forehead with his blood. However, the elder Meena hasn’t necessarily reciprocated Naresh’s overtures, perhaps due to different political ideologies and to prevent Naresh from gaining political capital, especially within the Meena community.

In September 2020, Naresh, who had tested positive for Covid-19, was arrested by the Baran police while he was protesting against illegal mining – embarrassing the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government – outside a police station. After the latest incident too, Gehlot attacked the Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP government as well as Pilot – the latter indirectly – over Meena’s slap, saying, “What is the mystery? We don’t know. Who incited him (to contest), who didn’t stop him from contesting? If he wasn’t contesting, then it was certainly our seat.”

In Pilot’s context too, Meena hasn’t had much luck in terms of tickets. Despite having built a considerable support base in the last two decades, he has been overlooked by the Congress during elections, leading him to rebel.

In the 2023 Assembly elections, the Congress chose Karan Singh over Meena from Chhabra. Meena, contesting as an Independent, polled close to 44,000 votes, while Singh lost to the BJP’s Pratap Singh Singhvi by 5,100 votes. The Congress then expelled him for six years.

He was brought back into the party this March ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. However, days later, he embarrassed Murari Lal Meena who was declared as the Congress candidate from Dausa.

At a rally for Murari, Naresh Meena said he was asked to join the party after being promised a ticket, but the party instead fielded Murari. He said that if Murari became the MP and his daughter Niharika an MLA, what would happen to people like him. He asked Murari to withdraw and back him instead. He then filed his candidature as an Independent but the party convinced him to withdraw.

Once again, in the bypoll for Deoli-Uniara, Meena was overlooked, prompting him to contest as an Independent. Moving slowly, the party’s Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa issued Meena’s suspension order on November 7, a week after the last date for withdrawing nominations, which was October 30, and just six days before voting on November 13.

Naresh Meena’s antics may have won him some supporters – and detractors – but the slapping incident happened much later on polling day and may not have a lot of bearing on the result, which will be out on November 23. Either way, he will still be in judicial custody when the results are declared.