New Delhi: Facing protests and rebellion after the release of its first candidates list for Rajasthan polls, the BJP has fielded former chief minister Vasundhara Raje from her Jhalrapatan assembly constituency and also allotted tickets to many of her loyalists in what is being seen an attempt to mollify her.
Raje has had a running battle with the party’s high command, which has so far refused to declare her as its chief ministerial face.
Three-time MLA Narpat Singh Rajvi, former vice-president of India Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s son-in-law, who was denied a ticket from his constituency Vidhayadhar Nagar, has been accommodated in Chittorgarh in the BJP’s second list of 83 candidates released Saturday.
After he was denied a ticket, an upset Rajvi had alleged that doing so was a compromise of Shekhawat’s legacy.
Apart from him, the party has also fielded Kalicharan Saraf, Pratap Singh Singhvi, and Santosh Ahlawat — all Raje loyalists — in the assembly election on 25 November.
The list was announced a day after the Central Election Committee of the BJP held a marathon meeting to deliberate on the names.
“Senior party leaders had spoken to Rajvi after he was denied a ticket and now he has been fielded from another seat. But his ticket has been given by replacing the sitting MLA, so this too might create some trouble for the party as many have been critical of the first list itself,” said a senior BJP leader. The decision to include Raje loyalists, this leader said, came after protests from “several quarters” after the first list was released.
According to BJP leaders, 25-30 Raje loyalists have been given tickets in the second list.
“Now all eyes are on whether the party will declare Raje’s the campaign committee head or not,” the leader quoted earlier said. The BJP has also denied tickets to eight sitting MLAs.
Meanwhile, the Congress also declared its first list of 33 candidates. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will contest the election from Sadarpura, Sachin Pilot from Tonk, C.P. Joshi from Nathdwara, Divya Maderna from Osian, Govind Singh Dotasra from Lachhmangarh and Krishna Poonia from Sadulpur.
Also Read: BJP denies charge that party leaders took Rs 50 lakh to ‘sell’ a ticket in poll-bound Rajasthan
Mirdha from Nagaur, Rajasthan BJP ex-chief Poonia from Amber
Among the prominent names in BJP’s second list is Jyoti Mirdha, a former Congress leader and ex-Nagaur MP. Jyoti, who is from the politically influential Mirdha family of Rajasthan, joined the BJP in September after she quit the party claiming that she felt ‘suffocated’.
The Jat-dominated Nagaur is the Mirdha family bastion.
Among other candidates, former Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia has been fielded from Amber, and Rajendra Singh Rathore, the leader of Opposition in Rajasthan, has been fielded from Taranagar instead of his constituency Churu.
Siddhi Kumari, a member of the erstwhile royal family of Bikaner, has been given a ticket from Bikaner East.
This is an updated version of this report.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: Royal, Rajput, and not Raje— why BJP is placing its bets on Diya Kumari in Rajasthan