Call it a sheer coincidence or “dislike” of the Bihar voters, BJP leader Kameshwar Chaupal, who finds his place in the 15-member temple trust formed to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya, has never won any elections in his lifetime even at the peak of the Ram temple movement. Chaupal, who claims to be from the Dalit community, had laid the first brick of the Ram temple at Ayodhya in November 1989—three years before the Babri mosque was razed to the ground by a frenzied mob of Hindu hardliners.

Chaupal, who had virtually vanished from the political scene in recent years, came into focus again when he was given a place in the 15-member Shri Ram Janma Bhoomi Tortha Kshetra Trust set by the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday in line with the verdict of the Supreme Court. His joy knew no bounds when his name was announced as one of the members of the trust along with senior lawyer K Parasaran and Jagadguru Shankaracharya.

“I express my gratitude to the Prime Minister for giving me the place in the trust. The kind of speed with which the trust has been formed, temple construction will take place with the same speed,” Chaupal said. He added the formation of the trust indicated how serious the government is towards temple construction.

Strangely, Chaupal, picked up by the Modi government as one of the members of the trust, doesn’t enjoy the “blessings” of the general masses. This can be gauged from the fact that he never won any elections in the past although he was fielded thrice by the party. The BJP had tried to cash in upon his “popularity” thrice given the way he had led the Ram temple movement but he failed every test.

Chaupal was first fielded from Rosera LS in 1991 at the peak of the temple movement but he was badly defeated by Dalit politician Ram Vilas Paswan. In the next assembly elections in 1995, he was then fielded from Bakhari seat in Begusarai but he again lost. Subsequently, he was nominated to the Upper House of the State Legislature. During the 2014 LS polls, he was finally fielded from his home Supaul seat but again lost the elections and finished third. He was defeated by Congress’ Ranjita Ranjan, wife of former MP Pappu Yadav. Since then Chaupal has been literally pushed to political oblivion.