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Journalism of Courage
ALMOST TWO weeks after the Assembly elections were announced, the Congress Saturday finally announced its first list for Rajasthan, naming candidates for 33 of the 200 seats in the state.
With seat talks reportedly stuck due to deep divisions in the state unit, the first list features the predictable constituencies, held by heavyweights such as Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his rival and ex-Deputy CM Sachin Pilot, Assembly Speaker C P Joshi, and state president Govind Singh Dotasra.
Of the 33 names, 29 are of sitting MLAs. The remaining four had contested from the same seats in 2018, but lost to the BJP.
There are several Pilot loyalists in the list, such as Indraj Gurjar, Mukesh Bhakar and Ramniwas Gawriya, apart from four candidates each from the reserved Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes seats.
Ramila Khadiya is the lone name who is not from the Congress but is a sitting Independent MLA. She has been fielded from her Kushalgarh constituency. In June this year, Gehlot had credited Khadiya with saving his government during the 2020 crisis, alleging that money was kept in her car but still she had not changed sides.
Gehlot will contest from his sitting constituency of Sardarpura, as will Pilot from his constituency Tonk, Dotasra from Laxmangarh, and Joshi from Nathdwara.
Cabinet minister Mamta Bhupesh has been retained from Sikrai and her colleagues, Tikaram Jully and Mahendra Jeet Singh Malviya, from Alwar Rural and Bagidora, respectively. Ministers of State Bhanwar Singh Bhati and Ashok Chandna get the ticket again from Kolayat and Hindoli, respectively.
Sitting MLAs who have been retained include Olympian Krishna Poonia (Sadulpur); Ganesh Ghogra (Dungarpur); Manoj Kumar Meghwal (Sujangarh); Rita Choudhary (Mandawa); Indraj Singh (Viratnagar); Danish Abrar (Sawai Madhopur); Mukesh Bhakar (Ladnun); Chetan Singh Choudhary (Didwana); Manju Devi (Jayal); Vijaypal Mirdha (Degana); Ramniwas Gawriya (Parbatsar); Divya Maderna (Osian); Manisha Panwar (Jodhpur); Mahendra Bishnoi (Luni); Harish Choudhary (Baytoo); and Priti Gajendra Singh Shaktawat (Vallabhnagar).
Others include Ramlal Meena from Pratapgarh, and Sudarshan Singh Rawat from Bheem.
The four seats where the losing candidates from 2018 have been accommodated include Mundawar, Malviya Nagar, Sanganer and Mandalgarh.
Lalit Kumar Yadav was the BSP candidate from Mundawar in 2018 who lost to the BJP’s Manjeet Dharampal. He has now got a ticket from the same seat from the Congress.
Archana Sharma has been repeated from Malviya Nagar, Pushpendra Bhardwaj from Sanganer, and Vivek Dhakar from Mandalgarh.
Earlier, The Indian Express had reported that the Congress list was held up on account of Gehlot opposing the suggestion to bench several MLAs, including ministers.
