Congress party declared the names of 19 candidates out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, a week after Bhartiya Janta Party declared its first list of 16 candidates.
According to the first list declared on Thursday late night, Rajasthan Chief Minister's son Vaibhav Gehlot will contest from Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat against sitting BJP MP and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Jodhpur is considered bastion for Gehlot family as Ashok Gehlot has remained 5 times MP from and three times MLA from Jodhpur. Moreover, Manvendra Singh, son of veteran BJP leader Jaswant Singh will contest from Barmer Parliamentary seat. Singh who joined Congress in September 2018 had contested against former chief minister Vasundhara Raje from Jhalawar and lost.
Interestingly out of 25 candidates, Congress party has fielded three women candidates whereas its counterpart BJP is yet to field any woman candidate. Former Jaipur mayor Jyoti Khandelwal will contest from Jaipur against sitting MP of BJP, Ramcharan Bohra. Similarly, Jyoti Mirdha will contest from Nagaur and Savita Meena will contest from Dausa. I
The final list of the candidates was released after Rahul Gandhi visited Rajasthan and interacted with party workers on Tuesday. Interestingly party has fielded two former union ministers Bhawar Jitendra Singh from Alwar and Namo Narayan Meena from Tonk - Sawai Madhopur Lok Sabha seat.
Rajasthan will go to polls in two phases. In the first phase on April 29, elections will be held on 13 seats. Whereas on May 6, the second phase the elections will be held on 12 seats. In 2014, BJP made a historic win by sweeping all 25 seats in Rajasthan. However later in 2018 bypolls saffron party lost two seats to the Congress.
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