Rajasthan Election 2023: Congress names 61 more candidates, two BJP rebels, 30 fresh faces in latest lists

Rajasthan Congress Candidate List 2023: The Congress on Tuesday released its fourth and fifth lists of candidates with 61 names for the upcoming Rajasthan elections. With the latest two lists, the party has so far named 156 candidates.

In the latest lists, the party has denied tickets to seven incumbent MLAs and named 14 incumbent MLAs, including two independent winners of the 2018 Assembly election and two more who won the polls on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) tickets and subsequently joined the Congress.

Also Read:Rajasthan Elections 2023: Congress full list of candidates

The party has fielded two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rebels, Vikas Chaudhary and Surendra Goyal, from Kishangarh and Jaitaran, respectively. The ruling party in Rajasthan has also named seven women in the fourth list and has fielded more than 30 fresh faces.

The Congress party has given a ticket to Ankur Manglani from Ganganagar constituency, Sohan Lal Nayak from the SC-dominated Raisinghnagar constituency, Shimla Devi Nayak will contest from another SC-dominated constituency Anupgarh. Yashpal Gehlot will contest from Bikaner East and Dr. Rajendra Moond from Lunkaransar, according to the party’s fourth list.

Also Read: Rajasthan Election 2023: Candidates, constituencies and schedule | Get all details here

Among the incumbent MLAs who have been denied tickets by the Congress are Johari Lal Meena (Rajgarh), Babu Lal (Kathumar), Khiladi Lal Bairwa (Baseri), Bharosi Lal (Hindaun), and Bharat Singh Kundanpur (Sangod).

So far, the Congress has announced 156 candidates for the polls in the desert state, where the party seeks to break the trend of incumbent governments being voted out.

Earlier, the Congress’s Central Election Committee (CEC) had met and discussed the names of candidates who would be contesting in the Rajasthan elections. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of the state Sukhjinder Randhawa and the party’s state unit chief, Govind Dotasra, attended the meeting.

AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal and Rajasthan screening committee chief Gaurav Gogoi, besides the members of the CEC, also attended the meeting.

On Thursday (October 26), the Congress released its third list of 19 candidates for the upcoming Rajasthan elections. On Sunday( October 22), the party released its second list of 43 candidates, while the first list of 33 candidates was released on Saturday (October 21).

The state is all set to witness an intense electoral contest between the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP. The Rajasthan elections for 200 Assembly seats are set to be held on November 25 in a single phase, with the counting of votes scheduled for December 3.