Even as the Congress is lagging behind the opposition BJP when it comes to announcing candidates for the November 25 Assembly elections in Rajasthan - the party has so far announced candidates for only 76 of the 200 constituencies, while the BJP has named 124 - the party is also dealing with angry leaders, some of whom are jumping ship after being denied tickets. The discontent within the Congress mirrors a similar wave of dissent within the BJP, which is dealing with protests in several pockets. Apart from incumbents, the Congress's 76 names so far cover mostly those seats where there is little scope of dispute over candidature, such as the seats for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Assembly Speaker C P Joshi and former Deputy CM Sachin Pilot. Earlier this week, Congress leader Pandit Suresh Mishra who is also the national president of the Sarv Brahmin Mahasabha, joined the BJP. He took the step just a day after the Congress fielded another Brahmin leader, Pushpendra Bhardwaj, from the Sanganer Assembly seat in Jaipur, ignoring Mishra's claim. Mishra had earlier unsuccessfully contested the 2008 Assembly elections from Sanganer on a Congress ticket. Mishra, counted among the staunchest supporters of Pilot, had last year written a letter using his blood to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge decrying the events of September 25, 2022, when MLAs loyal to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had skipped a legislature party meeting and tendered their resignations, in a bid to stop the high command from crowning Pilot as the chief minister. “There are talks of murdering Sanatan (Dharma). I decided not to stay in a party where I spent 15 years of my life without any respect,” Mishra told reporters after joining the BJP on Monday. Another Congress Brahmin leader, Mahesh Sharma, resigned as chairman of the Rajasthan Rajya Vipra Kalyan Board for the welfare of the community, angry over being denied a ticket from the Malviya Nagar Assembly seat, also in Jaipur. The Congress has fielded from here senior leader Archana Sharma, who unsuccessfully contested Assembly elections from here in 2013 and 2018. In Mahwa under Dausa district, Congress workers protested after the party announced incumbent Independent MLA Om Prakash Hudla as its candidate. They demanded that the party field a local Congress worker. Hudla is a two-time MLA from Mahwa, having won once on a BJP ticket and then as an Independent. Congress sources said one reason the party has named fewer candidates is that it is anticipating similar protests over tickets to the Independent MLAs and BSP legislators who had switched to the Congress after the 2018 elections. While local Congress workers in many areas are opposed to the candidature of these "outsider" leaders, Gehlot has repeatedly thanked these MLAs for supporting his government, leaving them hopeful about getting Congress tickets.
