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Congress gives 5 seats to allies, three candidates changed in 3rd list for Rajasthan assembly polls

Hindustan Times, Jaipur | By
Nov 19, 2018 02:52 PM IST

With the third list for Rajasthan assembly election, the Congress has released names of 199 candidates, including 112 new faces. The party has kept Mahua assembly seat on hold.

The Congress gave five seats to three alliance partners and changed candidates on three seats in the third list announced on Sunday.

Of the 18 candidates announced, the party gave two seats each to Sharad Yadav’s Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), and one seat to Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

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The Congress fielded two former ministers and denied ticket to a former minister. The party also changed tickets for Bikaner (East), Bikaner (West) and Kesoraipatan seats.

Former minister and former Rajasthan Congress president BD Kalla was accommodated in Bikaner (West). Yashpal Gehlot, fielded from this constituency earlier, has been shifted to Bikaner (East). Kanhaiya Lal Jhanwar, who was earlier fielded from Bikaner (East), has been dropped. In Kesoraipatan, the party replaced CL Premi with Rakesh Boyat.

The party fielded Alwar MP Dr Karan Singh Yadav from Kishangarh Bas, making him the third sitting MP to contest the December 7 assembly elections. Yadav won the parliamentary by-election in February this year.

Five seats given to alliance partners include Mundawar and Kushalgarh to LJD, Bharatpur and Malpura to RLD, and Bali to NCP.

The Sunday’s list had seven new faces, including Ranju Ramawat who has been fielded from Sumerpur after the party denied former minister Bina Kak ticket from the constituency. Kak had represented Sumerpur four times and was a cabinet minister in the 2008-2013 Ashok Gehlot government.

With the third list, the party has released names of 199 candidates, including 112 new faces. The party has kept Mahua assembly seat on hold.

The changes in two Bikaner constituencies have changed the political equations in the district. Jhanwar had contested against Leader of Opposition Rameshwar Dudi in Nokha as an Independent and defeated Dudi in 2008. Dudi wanted him shifted out of Nokha and persuaded the party to give him (Jhanwar) ticket from Bikaner (East). Following protests over denial of ticket to Kalla, the party changed its mind and in accommodating Kalla, dropped Jhanwar.

On Sunday, in a video purportedly of Dudi addressing a gathering, the Jat leader is heard announcing that he will not contest the assembly election if the party did not review its decision of dropping Jhanwar. Political experts said Dudi is scared of Jhanwar fighting as an Independent candidate against him from Nokha again.

Former health minister AA Ahmad alias Durru Mian made a delayed entry into the political fray due to party’s deliberations with the Samajwadi Party over Tijara constituency. After the talks fell apart, Durru Mian found party’s favours.

Another candidate who has been repeated is Dilip Choudhary from Jaitaran.

New faces fielded by party include – Amit Chachan from Nohar; Yashpal Gehlot from Bikaner-East; Subhash Meel from Khandela; Murari Lal Gurjar from Nagar; Nandaram Thakan from Kishangarh; Mahaveer Rajpurohit from Pali; Ranju Ramawat from Sumerpur; Manish Mewada from Asind; and Rakesh Boyat from Keshoraipatan.

Political analyst Narayan Bareth said, “Changes done will strengthen the party on the three seats but had the party assessed it before, it would have been better.” He said the Congress has struck alliances for the first time in Rajasthan keeping in mind 2019 Lok Sabha elections

Congress spokesperson Satyendra Singh Raghav said, “The list is a blend of experience and new faces. The change of names on three seats is leadership’s decision considering local politics. The sitting MPs had expressed to contest polls, which the party considered.”

BJP spokesperson Mukesh Pareek said, “The Congress made tall claims about giving tickets to workers and not to parachute candidates, but everything was eyewash. They have no capability to compete with BJP so have gone for alliance with other parties but all these won’t help; BJP will form the government.”

Click on link for complete coverage of Rajasthan Assembly Election

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