Congress announces 43 more candidates for Rajasthan polls; 14 ministers included

New Delhi: Thirty-five, including 14 ministers, of the 43 candidates announced by Congress on Sunday in its second list for Rajasthan are sitting MLAs, while one lawmaker was replaced by her husband.

Among the 35 sitting MLAs, five are independents who were supporting the Ashok Gehlot government. This time, all these have been given party tickets.

Former Chief Secretary Niranjan Arya has been fielded from BJP’s sitting seat Sorjat, which is reserved for Scheduled Castes.

State ministers Govind Ram Meghwal and B D Kalla have been fielded from Khajuwala (Scheduled Caste) and Bikaner West respectively. Minister of State for Higher Education Rajendra Singh Yadav was fielded from the Kotputli seat while Food and Civil Supplies Minister Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas (Civil Lines) is also in the fray. All these ministers are Gehlot loyalists.

Among other prominent names in the list are independent MLAs Laxman Meena (Bassi), Babulal Nagar (Dudu), Sanyam Lodha (Sirohi), Om Prakash Hudla (Mahua) and Khushveer Singh (Marwar Junction). All these MLAs are considered close to Gehlot.

The lone sitting MLA not to find space in the list is Shafia Zubair but this time her husband Zuber Khan will fight from Ramgarh.

With this, Congress has announced 76 candidates for the state where the party is in power. On Saturday, it announced tickets for 33 seats by retaining all the 29 MLAs it has in these seats.

While four seats in the first list were held by BJP, seven in the second list also belonged to the saffron party. 

None of the three Gehlot loyalists accused of leading the rebellion in September last year and not allowing a meeting of Congress Legislature Party -- Shanti Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi, and Dharmendra Rathore -- found place in the second list also.

Among the prominent names are Food and Civil Supplies Minister Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas (Civil Lines) and Independent MLAs Laxman Meena (Bassi), Babulal Nagar (Dudu), Sanyam Lodha (Sirohi), Om Prakash Hudla (Mahua) and Khushveer Singh (Marwar Junction).