C. P. Joshi

C. P. Joshi (born 29 July 1950) is an Indian politician. He was the Member of Parliament of India from Bhilwara in the 15th Lok Sabha.
He contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Jaipur(Rural) seat. He was one of the first 19 members of India's new cabinet sworn in on 22 May 2009, despite being a first-time member of the Lok Sabha. He is the former minister of Road Transport and Highways and Railway. He is a member of the Indian National Congress.

Joshi completed his Primary and Higher Secondary education at his birthplace Nathdwara, Rajasthan. He finished his graduation from M. B. College Udaipur with a B.A. in Law, and completed his Masters in Physics. He also completed his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Psychology. He began his academic career as a lecturer at the M. B. College, Udaipur. Before entering full time politics, Joshi was a Professor of Psychology at Udaipur's Mohanlal Sukhadia University, with a specialisation in Intelligence Quotient.

Mohan Lal Sukhadia, founder of modern Mewar, recognised Joshi's social commitments and encouraged him to actively participate in politics. He was elected as Student Union President for Mohanlal Sukhadia University in 1973. He was elected MLA from Nathdwara Assembly (1980 and 1985, 1998 and 2003). He addressed various issues like Lack of Education, Roads, Animal food in the constituency.

In 1998 he received the honor to become the Cabinet Minister for the state handling key portfolios like Panchayati Raj, Education, Rural Development, Public Health Engineering, Policy Planning, and Information Technology. He gave a new direction to the significant departments of Abhiyantrik Yojna, Panchayati Raj and Education and made his distinguished presence in these fields.

In 2003, as an opposition MLA, he was appointed President of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee. In a span of few months, he brought the state unit together to win the 2008 assembly elections only to lose his own seat. He is the second person in the Indian election history to lose an assembly election by one vote. The first candidate to lose by a single vote was A. R. Krishnamurthy against R. Dhruvanarayana at the Santhemarahalli constituency of Karnataka during 2004 assembly elections.

In 2012, after Mamata Banerjee went out of UPA and Mukul Roy resigned as Railways Minister, CP Joshi got extra charge of Railways Ministry.