The Congress on October 31 announced its fourth list, comprising 56 candidates, for the Rajasthan Assembly election, while fielding its national spokesperson Gourav Vallabh from Udaipur and former MP Manvendra Singh from Siwana in Balotra district. Mr. Singh, the son of the late BJP leader Jaswant Singh, had switched from the BJP to the Congress in 2018. The ruling party has replaced three sitting MLAs with other candidates.
With Thursday’s list, which was released after a marathon meeting of the Congress’s Central Election Committee in New Delhi, the party has so far declared the names of 151 candidates for the 200-member Assembly. The voting will take place on November 25.
The three MLAs who have been denied ticket this time are Bharat Singh (Sangod), Bharosi Lal Jatav (Hindaun) and Khiladi Lal Bairwa (Baseri). Independent MLAs Mahadev Singh Khadela and Kanti Prasad Meena have been fielded from Khandela and Thanagazi, respectively, while Deep Chand Kheria and Jogendra Awana, who joined the Congress after being elected on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket, have been given tickets from Kishangarh Bas and Nadbai.
Mr. Vallabh, a professor of finance and a chartered accountant, will confront the BJP’s Tarachand Jain in Udaipur at the seat vacated by Gulab Chand Kataria after his appointment as the Assam Governor. On the other hand, Mr. Singh had lost against the then BJP Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in Jhalrapatan in 2018 and had later unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the Barmer-Jaisalmer seat.
New candidates
The fourth list contained the names of a large number of sitting MLAs as well as new candidates in several constituencies. The Congress has brought Imran Khan, who was declared by the BSP as its candidate in Alwar district’s Tijara, to its fold and fielded him from the seat to challenge BJP MP Baba Balak Nath.
Former Assembly Speaker and sitting MLA Deependra Singh Shekhawat has been fielded from his Srimadhopur seat again, while Rafiq Mandelia, who lost to Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore at Churu in the 2018 election, was named the Congress candidate from the same seat again. Sitting MLA Prashant Bairwa will contest the polls again from the reserved constituency of Niwai in Tonk district.
Among other candidates, Sanjay Yadav has been fielded from Behror, Zakir Hussain Gesawat from Makrana, Badri Ram Jakhar from Bail, Nagraj Meena from Dhariawad, Virendra Singh Parmar from Kumbhalgarh, Rakesh Roat from Aspur, Samarjeet Singh from Bhinmal, Amar Singh Jatav from Bayana and Shimla Devi Nayak from Anupgarh.
