Jaipur: One may call it a political exile for former CM of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje, but it seems that when it comes to her home ground, she still holds the keys, as the BJP candidate named for the Anta by-election is known to be a Raje loyalist.
The BJP has fielded Morpal Suman for the Anta Assembly seat by-election scheduled on November 11th.
Anta is part of the Jhalawar-Baran Loksabha constituency represented by Vasundhra Raje's son, Dushyant Singh, while Raje herself is MLA from Jhalrapatan, the other assembly seat of this Loksabha constituency. The Raje family has been holding this seat for more than two decades, and CM Bhajan Lal Sharma and party state president Madan Rathore had to meet Raje to finalize the party candidate.
As per the sources, apart from Suman, former minister of the Vasundhara Raje cabinet Prabhu Lal Sani was the other contender for the ticket, and some senior leaders were lobbying for him. Sani himself met Raje a couple of days ago, but ultimately Raje backed Suman and secured a ticket for him.
“Jhalawar-Baran is home for the Raje family, and her consent for the candidate there was a must for the party, as she may lead the campaign there as the face of the party,” said a party insider on anonymity.
However, the contest is likely to be triangular, as Congress has named former cabinet minister of the Ashok Gehlot regime Pramod Jain Bhaya, who has a good hold over the Baran district, while an independent candidate, Naresh Meena, is also in the fray. Meena hit the headlines several months ago when he slapped an SDM during polling of a by-election on some other seat.
This seat became vacant after Kanwarlal Meena, who was also close to Vasundhara Raje, lost his MLA seat in May this year following his conviction in a 20-year-old case of pointing a pistol at an SDM.
