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The Congress party made significant developments in the run-up to the Rajasthan assembly elections as it unveiled its fourth candidate list on Tuesday. Notable among the changes was the omission of eight incumbent legislators, while the party awarded a ticket to Manvendra Singh, the son of the late senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh, for the Siwana constituency in Barmer district.
The ruling Congress party has now disclosed the names of 151 candidates for the 200-member Rajasthan assembly, set to go to the polls on November 25. Among these candidates, Gourav Vallabh, the national spokesperson for the Congress, has been selected to run for the Udaipur city seat. With a focus on retaining power in the desert state, the party introduced 32 new faces in its fourth list of candidates.
The Congress, in its bid to freshen up its roster and possibly counteract anti-incumbency sentiment, 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 were also included in the candidate lineup, representing the Khandela and Thanagazi constituencies, respectively. Notably, Deepchand Kheriya and Jogendra Awana, who had initially won 2018 elections on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) tickets before joining the Congress, found themselves in the fourth list of the ruling party.
Moreover, the party extended a ticket to Vikas Choudhary, who had defected from the BJP and contested the 2018 polls on a BJP ticket, ultimately finishing as the runner-up.
During the decision-making process, the Central Election Committee of the Congress convened on Tuesday evening to deliberate on the potential candidates for the Rajasthan elections. The meeting included prominent figures such as Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, All India Congress Committee (AICC) state in-charge Sukhjinder Randhawa, and the party’s state unit chief, Govind Dotasra.
Also present at the CEC meeting were AICC General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal and the state’s screening committee chief, Gaurav Gogoi, among others.
Political analyst Manish Godha noted that the Congress had introduced newer and younger candidates as a strategy to counter anti-incumbency against sitting MLAs. He suggested that the list appeared to be based on surveys and feedback reports and seemed to reflect the influence of Ashok Gehlot, who accommodated those who supported his government during a crisis.
The Congress had previously released its third list of 19 candidates on Thursday, in addition to the 43 and 33 names announced in the first and second lists for the upcoming elections. The election results are scheduled to be announced on December 3.
