Rajasthan Election: Congress release 4th list of candidates

Results will be announced on December 3...

On Tuesday the Congress released its fourth list of 56 candidates for assembly elections in Rajasthan, dropping eight sitting legislators while giving party ticket to Manvendra Singh, the son of late senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh, to contest from Siwana in Barmer district.

Till now the ruling Congress has announced 151 candidates for the 200-member Rajasthan assembly, which will go to polls on November 25.

The Congress has fielded its national spokesperson Gourav Vallabh from Udaipur city. The party, which is eyeing to retain power in the desert state, has named 32 new faces in its fourth list of candidates.

The ruling party has denied tickets to sitting MLAs Khiladi Lal Meena, Bharat Singh Kundanpur, Bharosi Lal Jatav, Heera Lal Meghwal, Johari Lal Meena, Babu Lal Bairwa, Sandeep Yadav and Rajkumar Gaur.

Independent MLAs Mahadev Singh Khandela and Kanti Prasad Meena have been fielded from Khandela and Thanagazi, respectively. Deepchand Kheriya and Jogendra Awana, who joined the Congress after winning the 2018 elections on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) tickets, are also in the fourth list of the ruling party.

The party also gave a ticket to BJP turncoat Vikas Choudhary from Kishangarh. Choudhary had contested the 2018 polls on a BJP ticket, but stood second.

Earlier on Tuesday the Central Election Committee of the party evening held discussions on the names of probable candidates for the Rajasthan polls. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of the state Sukhjinder Randhawa and party’s state unit chief Govind Dotasra attended the meeting.

AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and state’s screening committee chief Gaurav Gogoi, among others, also attended the CEC meeting.

Political analyst Manish Godha said the Congress has experimented with new and younger candidates to “counter anti-incumbency against sitting MLAs”. “The list seems to be based on survey and feedback reports. It also has Ashok Gehlot’s imprint as he has accommodated those who stood by his government during the crisis,” Godha said.

On Thursday the Congress had released its third list of 19 candidates while the party announced 43 and 33 names, respectively, in the first and second lists for the upcoming polls. Results will be announced on December 3.