CP Joshi takes oath at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. (PTI)

Jaipur, May 22: He may have long shed the Che Guevara look of his youth but C.P. Joshi, said to be close to Rahul Gandhi, can now hope to be recognised in his own right.

The 58-year-old Rajasthan Congress chief, rewarded today for the party’s back-to-back triumphs in the desert state, had himself lost by a single one vote in the first of them – the 2008 Assembly polls. He won the Lok Sabha election by a margin of 1.35 lakh votes and was sworn in as Union minister this evening.

Till recently, chief minister Ashok Gehlot was the only Congress leader from Rajasthan known nationally and considered a cut above the rest because of his closeness to the Nehru-Gandhis, having once entertained Sonia Gandhi’s children with his magic skills.

But ever since Joshi took over as state Congress chief in 2007, this psychology lecturer with a masters in physics has been working on his connections with 10 Janpath, especially Rahul.

Sources say Joshi has openly backed younger leaders at the state level and given tickets to many fresh entrants in both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. He had angered many senior leaders with his plan to clamp an age bar on Assembly candidates that was later dropped.

Joshi, however, has never been one to fear confrontation. Almost throughout his career he has been seen as an aggressive and brusque man, whether working at the grassroots or arguing furiously in the Assembly.

For all that, most consider him an open, uncomplicated man with a large mass base. He answers his own calls although he avoids meeting anybody at home. He loves coloured and striped kurtas unlike most politicians, although he wore white to Rashtrapati Bhavan today.

Joshi was born into a schoolteacher’s family in Kunwaria, Rajsamand district, on July 29, 1950. He did his masters in physics and a doctorate in psychology besides earning a bachelors degree in law.

Growing up in the temple town of Nathdwara, he drew inspiration from a rather unlikely source: Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, whom he resembled those days with his long hair and beard. He was initiated into Congress politics by one of Rajasthan’s longest serving chief ministers, Mohanlal Sukhadia.

Joshi first contested the Assembly polls in 1980 from Nathdwara, winning two consecutive elections with huge margins. His political career took off in earnest in 1998 when Gehlot handpicked him to stave off a rival.

He served in the state cabinet from 1998 to 2003, holding important portfolios such as education, panchayati raj, rural development, public health engineering, policy planning and information technology.

In 2003, after the Congress was routed by the BJP in Rajasthan, the party was looking for a new state unit chief. Joshi was a strong contender but lost out because of his image as an abrasive hard-liner.

The disappointment forced him into a serious attempt at a makeover. Those close to him say that in 2007, he met Sonia Gandhi and told her: “I am the same aggressive leader but I have come to talk about the party.”

What he told her is not known but he took over charge of the state unit from then on. Joshi, however, lost the race for chief ministership to Gehlot a year later because of his one-vote defeat from Nathdwara.

Gehlot would have been partly happy at his only possible rival’s defeat, Congress insiders say, and will now be wholly relieved at Joshi’s departure to Delhi.