Jaipur, (Samajweekly) The Congress has released its third list of 19 candidates for the November 25 Rajasthan Assembly elections, in which the names of two ministers — Shanti Dhariwal and Mahesh Joshi — have not been announced.
Notably, Dhariwal and Joshi had gone against the Congress high command and called a parallel meeting on September 25 last year against the CLP meeting called by the party veterans. Joshi is expecting ticket from Hawa Mahal in Jaipur, the candidature for which is yet to be announced.
One minister and 11 MLAs have been given tickets in the third list, in which the ticket for sitting MLA Gayatri Trivedi’s seat (Sahada) has been given to her brother-in-law Rajendra Trivedi.
The Congress had named 33 candidates in the first list and 43 nominees in the second list. With the addition of 19 more candidates on Thursday, the party has so far named 95 nominees for the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly.
In the third list, ticket has been given to state minister Ramesh Meena who has been fielded from Sapotra.
The list also named 11 MLAs, including Narendra Budania from Taranagar, Rajendra Pareek from Sikar, Ganga Devi from Bagru, Wajib Ali from Nagar, Lakhan Singh Meena from Karauli, Gajraj Khatana from Bandikui, Ramkesh Meena from Gangapur, Harish Chandra Meena from Deoli-Uniara, Rakesh Pareek from Masuda, Madan Prajapat from Pachpadra and Panachand Meghwal from Baran-Atru.
The Congress has also fielded expelled BJP MLA Shobharani Kushwah, who joined the grand old party on Wednesday in the presence of Priyanka Gandhi after quitting the saffron camp.
Kushwah, who was expelled by the BJP in June last year for ‘cross-voting’ in the Rajya Sabha elections, will contest from Dholpur, a seat she had won in 2018 on a BJP ticket.
The rebels who lost last time have been given tickets in two seats. C.L. Premi from Keshoraipatan and Pusaram Godara from Ratangarh had contested the 2018 elections as Independents after being denied tickets, but had lost.
Shravan Kumar, who lost on a Congress ticket last time from Surajgarh, has been given another chance.
The third list also includes the names of BSP-turned-Congress MLAs Wajib Ali and Lakhan Singh Meena.
The party has also fielded a new candidate — Motiram Koli — from the Reodar SC seat.
