Rajasthan: BJP struggles with mass resignations ahead of assembly polls

The release of the first list of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates for the Rajasthan assembly elections has triggered a flurry of resignations in the party as many prominent names have failed to get ticket to contest.

The BJP released its first list of candidates for the December 7 assembly polls on Sunday night. The party announced the names of 131 out of the total 200 candidates. It has retained 85 sitting MLAs and dropped 26. The delay in releasing the first list , according to media reports, was because of party chief Amit Shah and Vasundhara Raje Scindia not arriving at a consensus on the issue of axing a large number of sitting MLAs.

State Minister Surendra Goyal has sent a curt resignation letter to Rajasthan party president Madanlal Saini, saying he was resigning from the primary membership of the BJP. He has been a five-time MLA for BJP. He has said he will contest the upcoming election as an Independent from Jaitaran seat.

Kuldeep Dhankhar, a former general secretary of the BJP, also quit after he was overlooked for the election on Monday. According to him, he might contest as an Independent from Virat Nagar and insisted that the candidate chosen by the BJP in his place was a bad choice.

The names of Health Minister Kali Charan Saraf, Transport Minister Yunus Khan, Industries Minister Rajpal Singh Shekhawat and Labour and Employment Minister Jaswant Singh Yadav are also missing from the list of candidates and speculation is rife that they too can desert the BJP.

No Muslims in BJP’s first list

Incidentally, the BJP’s first list of 131 candidates does not feature any Muslim nominees. Yunus Khan is the sitting MLA from Didwana and is considered the Number 2 in Vasundhara Raje’s Cabinet.

Nagaur MLA Habibur Rahman who has also been dropped has mailed his resignation to the party's state president Madan Lal Saini. "I resigned from the party's primary membership and forwarded the resignation to the party' state president today (Tuesday). There is discontent among my supporters against the party's decision to drop my name this time, therefore I took this decision," Rahman told PTI.

He said he was in Delhi, where he will meet his supporters to decide the future course of action.

Similarly, other sitting BJP MLAs, who also did not make it to the list, have also expressed dissatisfaction over the party's decision. Ramganj Mandi MLA Chandrakanta Meghwal said she will contest the election as an independent candidate.

"My name was dropped and the party announced some other candidate from my constituency. I have no idea why the party did this to me. I will file nomination as independent candidate from my constituency," she said.

A two-time MLA Sanjana Agri also expressed surprise over being denied a ticket.

"I brought Scheduled Castes' votes to the party's fold in the last 15 years and won the last election with a margin of over 20,000 votes. The decision to drop my name is surprising for me and for the Meghwal community. The community has significant influence in my constituency, but the party gave the ticket to a candidate who has a votebank of just a few hundreds," she said.

The Sojat MLA said she will make all efforts to get a ticket by November 18 and will continue to work for the party even she is denied one. "I would be serving my party, but the Meghwal community people are unhappy with the decision," she said.

Dungarpur MLA Devendra Katara said he will take a decision by evening, after discussing the matter with party workers.

Meanwhile, Avinash Rai Khanna, the BJP's election in charge of Rajasthan, told IANS that the party was doing all it can to end the dissidence. “We are in the process of talking to the dissidents. Our leaders are trying to meet them and talk to them. We won't allow any of them to leave the party," he said.

Asked why no Muslim had been fielded, he said: "Our next list is pending and we shall speak on this issue once the list is out."

The supporters of dissidents have been reaching the BJP headquarters here in large numbers to express their anguish over the decisions of the party.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said: "We shall sit together to fight such dissidence."