Congress names 19 candidates in third list for Rajasthan polls

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday announced its third list of 19 candidates for the Rajasthan Assembly elections, of which 13 are sitting MLAs, including a former BJP leader who cross voted in favour of the party in the Rajya Sabha elections.

Eleven of the sitting Congress MLAs, including one of the six who shifted from BSP, found space on the list while a woman MLA was dropped.

An independent MLA Ramkesh Meena and Shoba Rani Kushwaha, an MLA who cross-voted for Congress in June last year and was subsequently expelled by BJP, were chosen from Gangapur and Dholpur respectively.

The lone MLA to be dropped is Sahara MLA Gayatri Devi, who won a bypoll following her husband Kailash Chandra Trivedi’s death, and replaced by her brother-in-law Rajendra Trivedi. The party has so far dropped only two women sitting MLAs, the other being Shafia Zubair, who was replaced by her husband Zuber Khan in Ramgarh.

Lakhan Singh Meena, who crossed over from BSP, has also been re-nominated from Karauli.

With the latest list, Congress has finalised candidates for 95 of the 200 seats. So far, Congress has retained 77 sitting MLAs, including Shoba Rani Kushwaha and seven independents who supported the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government.

While 22 ministers have been re-nominated in three lists, seven are yet to find space in the candidate list. Of the 96 candidates, 14 are women.

Nomination filing for the Rajasthan polls will start from next Monday while the polling will be on November 25. The counting of votes will be on December 3.

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 space in the third list.