The BJP flag.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Jaipur: With the BJP’s central election committee meeting on Monday in Delhi to finalise the remaining names of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, it is being speculated that names would be declared by tomorrow.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma and state BJP president C P Joshi are in Delhi to attend the meeting, which will be chaired by BJP president J P Nadda and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
The 12 constituencies of Rajasthan which would vote on April 19 include Sriganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur, Jaipur Rural, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, and Nagaur.
Out of these, BJP hasn’t declared the names of candidate in seven seats—Sriganganagar, Jaipur, Jaipur Rural, Jhunjhunu, Dausa and Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, and Karauli-Dholpur.
The BJP has already announced 15 names out of the total 25 on March 2.
Out of these 15, the party has given tickets to leaders from Congress who crossed over recently, namely, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya from Banswara and Jyoti Mirdha from Nagaur.
With more Congress ministers crossing over to the saffron party, it is expected that at least one more—Lalchand Kataria—is likely to find a place amongst the candidates.
The Jaipur Rural seat is vacant due to its MP Rajyavardhan Rathore winning the Assembly elections and taking over as a minister in the state government. There are at least three names floating for Jaipur Rural, that of Kataria, Rao Rajendra Singh, a veteran BJP leader, and woman face—Rakhi Rathore.
The Jaipur Lok Sabha seat, which is a BJP stronghold, is ideally considered a Brahmin seat. Former state president Arun Chaturvedi is said to be the frontrunner for this seat, although some say sitting MP Ramcharan Bohra also stands a chance.
The buzz is that the BJP is going to bet on at least six new faces for the 10 remaining seats.
In Sriganganagar, sitting MP and former minister Nihal Chand Meghwal, 53, may be repeated. He had got embroiled in a rape case earlier in 2014 but later the victim dropped the charges.
In Jhunjhunu, the sitting MP Narendra Kumar, who contested the Assembly elections from Mandawa in November 2023, lost the seat. So it is unlikely that he would be considered for the Lok Sabha seat again. However, rumours are rife that his daughter-in-law Harshini Kulhari may be offered the Jhunjhunu ticket.
It is also being speculated that new faces may be fielded from Dausa, Sawai Madhopur and Karauli-Dholpur. The present ones—Jaskaur Meena from Dausa, Sukhbir Singh Jaunpuriya from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur and Manoj Rajoriya from Karauli-Dholpur—may not be repeated.
In the second phase of polls to be held on April 26, BJP has not declared the candidates in three seats, namely, Ajmer, Rajsamand, and Bhilwara.
Senior BJP leader and former state president Satish Poonia may be fielded from Ajmer and former leader of Opposition in the Assembly Rajendra Rathore may be accommodated in Rajsamand. Present Deputy Chief Minister Divya Kumari held this seat and is presently an MLA from Jaipur’s Vidyadhar Nagar constituency.
It is also being said that present Bhilwara MP Subhas Chand Baheriya may be repeated from the seat.
In the last two elections, the BJP won all the 25 seats from Rajasthab and is set for a hattrick this time. In 2019, the Nagaur seat was held by Hanuman Beniwal from Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, with support from the BJP.