New Delhi: The Congress party on Sunday released its third list of 18 candidates for the ensuing Rajasthan Assembly elections.
The party has fielded among others Amit Chachan from Lohar, BD Kalla from Bikaner West in place of Yashpal Gehlot, who will be contesting from Bikaner East in place of Kanhaiyalal Jhawar, Subhash Meel from Khandela and Dr Karan Singh Yadav from Kishangarh Bas.
Out of these 18 seats, Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) will contest on two seats each, while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will contest on one seat.
According to the report published in New Indian Express, this decision is a strong message to Ms. Mayawati who had refused to join hands with Congress.
On Saturday, the Congress party had released its second list of 32 candidates. According to the second list, Congress has fielded former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh against Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje from Jhalrapatan Assembly seat. Raje is a three-time MLA from Jhalrapatan constituency. Singh was in BJP before joining the Congress party in September.
The Congress had released its first list of 152 candidates for the Rajasthan assembly elections on Friday. The list includes the names of Sachin Pilot, the leader of Opposition in the state, and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot.
After detailed deliberations at the party’s Central Election Committee, it was decided that Pilot, who is the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) chief, will contest from Tonk, while Gehlot will contest from his home turf-Sardarpura constituency.
The Assembly elections in the state will take place in a single phase for all 200 seats on December 7. The counting of votes will take place on December 11.
Prefer opposition than alliance with Congress or BJP: Mayawati
Asserting that her alliance with Ajit Jogi’s party will get a majority in Chhattisgarh, Bahujan Samaj Party Chief Mayawati on Friday had said that she will prefer sitting in the opposition to supporting the Congress or BJP in an adverse situation.
“I have full confidence that we will get absolute majority and so there are no chances to think about any sort of support to or from anyone,” she told a channel in an interview.
“Even if we do not get majority, we will prefer sitting in the opposition to forming an alliance with the Congress or the BJP as both the parties are anti-poor, anti-farmer, anti-Dalit and anti-weaker sections,” she said.
The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s party is contesting the ongoing Chhattisgarh election in alliance with Ajit Jogi, a Congress rebel and the state’s first chief minister.
She said the question of alliance does not arise as the second phase of the polling is yet to take place, the BSP supremo told NDTV.
Jogi on Thursday had said he will not rule out anything, even a tie-up with the ruling BJP, despite his intense rivalry with Chief Minister Raman Singh.
With inputs from ANI/IANS