IPS officer's wife to contest as Independent against Raje

Jaipur: A serving Indian Police Service officer's wife will contest the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly election as an Independent candidate from Jhalrapatan constituency, currently represented by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

Mukul Choudhary, wife of 2009-batch Rajasthan-cadre IPS officer Pankaj Choudhary, said her decision to contest against Raje was the democratic way to fight the "injustice" being faced by the people under the BJP dispensation.

"I will contest the election from Jhalrapatan, which is my birth place, on the issue of corruption and misrule as an Independent candidate. The entire state is suffering under the rule of the chief minister. Corruption is rampant and crime rate is increasing. I have been working on the ground against these issues," she told PTI on Sunday. 

Chaudhary alleged that her husband was exploited and served charge sheets and faced frequent transfers for doing honest work. "Honest officers are being exploited and my husband is just a small part of it. I am the daughter of Jhalrapatan first, and wife of an honest IPS officer after that."

The woman's husband is posted as the superintendent of police of the state crime records bureau (SCRB) in Jaipur, while her mother, Shashi Dutta, was the law minister in former chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's government in 1993.

"My motivation to contest the election is corruption, misrule and miseries of people," said Chaudhary, a mother of two, adding that she chose Jhalrapatan in Jhalawar district as the constituency because Raje contests from there.

"My husband fights against crime and corruption... I too shall do the same, but in a different way. People in the chief minister's own constituency are unsatisfied with her. There is no development works and people are still lacking basic amenities," she pointed out.