Having excelled in shooting ranges, ace marksman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has now hit target in the political arena as well, getting a berth in the Narendra Modi Government on Sunday as a Minister of State in his maiden stint as an MP.
Rathore, 43, who rose to fame when he won a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens finishing second in the double trap shooting event, made a successful transition to politics, winning the lok Sabha polls from Jaipur Rural constituency earlier this year.He had decided to take a shot at politics last September when he joined BJP after taking voluntary retirement from the army as a Colonel.
After entering politics, Rathore had contended, “I must not back out when the nation is faced with a different kind of threat.”After passing out of the National Defence Academy, Rathore served the Army for 23 years.Besides his Olympic silver medal, Rathore also won a gold medal and set a new games record of 192 targets out of 200 at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, which stands to this day.