Gehlot, Pilot in Cong’s first list for Rajasthan
JAIPUR: The Congress late on Thursday released its first list of 152 candidates for the December 7 Rajasthan assembly elections, fielding former chief minister, Ashok Gehlot, from Sardarpur and party’s state unit chief, Sachin Pilot, from Tonk.
The candidates were announced after several rounds of brainstorming among party’s leadership in the last few days. Apart from Gehlot and Pilot, the other senior leaders who will be entering the fray include former MP CP Joshi from Nathdwara (Udaipur) and Girija Vyas from Udaipur, leader of Opposition Rameshwar Dudi from Nokha (Bikaner). Sitting MP from Ajmer, Raghu Sharma, has been given ticket from Kekri assembly in Ajmer district
A two-time parliamentarian from Dausa (2004) and Ajmer (2009), Pilot will contest assembly elections for the first time while two-time CM Gehlot will contest his fifth continuous state election from Sardarpura seat.
The party has denied tickets to two sitting MLAS – Ghanshyam Mehr from Toda Bhim and Narayan Singh from Dataramgarh (his son Virendra Choudhary has been given a ticket).
The list of 152 candidates was cleared after six-hour meeting of CEC chaired by AICC president Rahul Gandhi.
In Jaipur, the party of nine assembly constituencies has cleared names on four – Pratap Singh Khachariyawas from Civil Lines, Kishanpole (Ameen Kagzi), Vidhyadhar Nagar (Sitaram Agarwal) and Ganga Devi from Bagru – except Vidhyadhar Nagar all the three candidates have been repeated.
Despite stating that it would not field ‘parachute candidates’, the Congress has given a ticket to Kanhaiya Lal Jhanwar (Bikaner-east), MP from Dausa Harish Meena (Deoli-uniara), Habibur Rehman (Nagaur) and Sona Devi (Raisingh Nagar). Sitting MP Meena and MLA Rehman had switched over to the Congress from the BJP on Wednesday.
The ruling BJP has already announced 162 candidates in two lists denying tickets to 41 legislators and five ministers.
In 2008 assembly elections, the Congress gave ticket to 21 women and 16 to minority candidates. The number of women candidates were increased to 24 in 2013 elections. The first list for next month’s polls includes names of 18 women.
Working on social engineering, Congress in 2008 gave 36 tickets to people from Jat community, Rajput (20), Brahmin (20), Vaishya (14), Gujjar (10), Muslim (16), and SC/ST (63). In 2013 the party gave ticket to - Jat (40), Rajput (15), Brahmin (17), Vaishya (11), Gujjar (13), Muslim (16), and SC/ST (65).