Rajasthan Elections 2023: Congress Plays Safe In First List; BJP Takes A Lesson By Repeating Most MLAs

Jaipur: With the release of the first list of Congress and a second list of BJP candidates, the election scenario has started taking shape in Rajasthan. After a marathon meeting of senior leaders of the party, the Congress has come up with a small and safe list of 33 candidates that have the most predictable and undisputed names, while BJP is facing resentment on many seats after the release of its first list has taken a lesson this time and repeated most of its sitting MLAs. No MPs are there in the second list and former CM Vasundhara Raje's, loyalists are in a good number in this list conveying a message that Raje is still important to the party.

The Congress in its first list of 33 candidates has repeated 29 sitting MLAs including five ministers and prominent faces like CM Ashok Gehlot, his former deputy Sachin Pilot, party president Govind Singh Dotasara and Rajasthan Assembly speaker Dr CP Joshi. All will contest the election from their respective seats. Five ministers Mahendrajit Singh Malviya, Mamta Bhupesh, Bhanwar Singh Bhati, Tikaram Julie, and Ashok Chandna have been given tickets.

4 of Sachin Pilot's loyalists get tickets in first list

To convey the message of unity and all is well in the party, four of Sachin Pilot's loyalists have got tickets in the first list. These include Indraj Singh Gurjar from Viratnagar, Mukesh Bhakar from Ladnun and Ramnivas Gavadiya from Parbatsar tickets. Former MLA Vivek Dhakad has been made the candidate from Mandalgarh. Danish Abrar is the only Muslim face out of 33. Danish has been given ticket from Sawaimadhopur, while the women have got good representation with nine out of 33 have been repeated from their seats.

Besides these, three candidates who were defeated in the last election have also been repeated. These include Archana Sharma from Malviya Nagar, Pushpendra Bhardwaj from Sanganer, and Vivek Dhakad from Mandalgarh.

This is being considered a safe list that has undisputed names and will help the party to convey the message that there is no resentment in the party toward candidates like BJP.

9 tickets for women

Nine women candidates are there in the first list released by Congress. These include Mamta Bhupesh from Sikrai, Divya Maderna from Osian, Krishna Poonia from Sadulpur, Rita Chaudhary from Mandawa, Archana Sharma from Malviya Nagar, Manju Meghwal from Jayal, Preeti Shaktawat from Vallabhnagar, Manisha Panwar from Jodhpur, Ramila Khadiya from Kushalgarh.

Big names in BJP's second list

After the late-night meeting of the party's Central Election Committee on Friday, the BJP released the second list of 83 candidates for Rajasthan on Saturday. This time there are no MPs on the list, instead, the party has repeated most of the sitting MLAs and even once again bets on some of the faces that had lost the last election. BJP has cancelled the tickets of 8 sitting MLAs and has repeated 56 out of 69. With this, the party has declared 124 out of 200 seats in the legislative assembly of Rajasthan.

The list has the names of three top leaders of the state including former CM Vasundhara Raje who will contest from Jhalrapatan for the fifth time, while the seat of Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathod has been changed. He has been given a ticket from Taranagar instead of Churu. The deputy leader of the opposition Satish Punia will contest from his seat Amer.

Vishwaraj Singh Mewar, a member of the former royal family of Udaipur, who joined the party just two days ago has been fielded from Nathdwara and former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha has been given a ticket from Nagpur. Mirdha joined the BJP about a month ago.

Former CM Vasundhara Raje who was being considered sidelined has not only secured his ticket but has a good number of his supporters on the list. Some of the ministers of her government like Shrchand Kriplani, Hem Singh Bhadna and Otaram Dewasi who lost the last election have been given one more chance to contest.

The party had cancelled the ticket of Narpat Singh Rajvi, a senior leader and son-in-law of former Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in the previous list. It was not taken well as this is the birth centenary year of Shekhawat. Now in a damage control exercise, the party has fielded Rajvi from Chittorgarh.