4 min readJaipurOct 9, 2023 09:58 PM IST
First published on: Oct 9, 2023 at 09:58 PM IST
Hours after the Election Commission (EC) on Monday announced that Rajasthan will go to polls on November 23, the BJP released its first list of 41 candidates, fielding seven sitting MPs and denying tickets to some of its old-timers. At present, the party only holds one of the 41 seats — Vidhyadhar Nagar — but there too it replaced its incumbent legislator.
The party’s move to field seven of its 24 MPs from the state is similar to its strategy in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, where incumbent MPs have been asked to contest the Assembly elections. The two big names denied tickets from their usual constituencies are Vidhyadhar Nagar MLA Narpat Singh Rajvi who is the son-in-law of former Chief Minister and Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and former Jhotwara MLA Rajpal Singh Shekhawat. Both of them are counted among the loyalists of former CM Vasundhara Raje.
From Vidhayadhar Nagar, the BJP has fielded Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari who is a member of the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur. Rajvi was continuously elected as MLA from Vidhyadhar Nagar since 2008. The BJP has fielded Jaipur rural MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from Jhotwara in place of former MLA from the constituency Rajpal Singh Shekhawat. Shekhawat represented the seat in 2008 and 2013 but lost in 2018.
Among the other big names on the list are Rajya Sabha MP and the party’s tallest tribal leader in Rajasthan Kirodi Lal Meena who has been fielded from the Sawai Madhopur in eastern Rajasthan, a region where the saffron party performed poorly in 2018. By fielding Meena, who has a formidable following in the region, the BJP hopes to improve its performance in districts such as Sawai Madhopur where it presently doesn’t have a single seat. Sawai Madhopur has four Assembly constituencies. In 2018, the BJP won only one of the 24 constituencies in the eastern Rajasthan districts of Bharatpur, Dausa, Dholpur, Karauli, and Sawai Madhopur.
Incumbent Alwar MP Baba Balaknath has been fielded from Tijara in Alwar district. Among the other MPs who will contest the Assembly elections are: Jhunjhunu MP Narendra Kumar from the Mandawa seat (Jhunjhunu district), Ajmer MP Bhagirath Choudhary from Kishangarh (Ajmer district), and Jalore-Sirohi MP Devji Patel who will be in the fray from Sanchore (Sanchore district).
Gujjar leader Vijay Bainsla who is the son of the late Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla, the face of Gujjar quota agitation, will contest on a BJP ticket from the Deoli-Uniara in Tonk.
Another important name in the list is former MP Subhash Maharia who has been fielded from Lachhmangarh in Sikar district whose incumbent MLA is state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra. Maharia was an MP from the BJP before switching to the Congress and returned to the BJP in May.
The BJP has lost to the Congress eight of the nine elections held since 2019 — eight bypolls and one election to an Assembly seat delayed by a month — and faces an uphill task in a state where the Congress is looking to beat a three-decade-old pattern of the incumbent government getting voted out. Among the BJP’s problems is a lack of cohesiveness as it takes on the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress, which is betting on the state government’s welfare initiatives and social justice politics to retain power.
From Vidhayadhar Nagar, the BJP has fielded Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari (left) who is a member of the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur. The BJP has fielded Jaipur rural MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from Jhotwara. (Photos: Facebook) 
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