Rajasthan polls: BJP releases 2nd list after patch-up with ex-CM Vasundhara Raje

Striking a deal with the warring faction led by former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, 21 October, released its second list of 83 candidates for the Rajasthan assembly elections.

Raje, who has often been at loggerheads with the party high command, will contest from her hometown of Jhalrapatan.

Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition in the Rajasthan state assembly, Rajendra Rathore, has been given a ticket from Taranagar (where he has earlier contested from as well) instead of Churu.

Vishvaraj Singh Mewar, a member of the former royal family of Udaipur, has been given a ticket from Nathdwara. He joined the BJP just a few days ago.

Narpat Singh Rajvi, MLA from the Vidyadhar Nagar seat in Jaipur and son-in-law of former vice-president of India Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, has now been given a ticket from Chittorgarh. In the first list, the BJP had cancelled his ticket and gave it to Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari from Vidyadhar Nagar.

The BJP had earlier announced candidates for 41 Assembly seats on 9 October.

The BJP has now cancelled the tickets of 7 MLAs in the second list — Suryakanta Vyas from Sursagar, Ashok Lahoti from Sanganer, Chandrabhan Singh Akya from Chittorgarh, Subhash Poonia from Surajgarh, Mohan Ram Chaudhary from Nagaur, Ruparam from Makrana and Lalit Kumar Ostwal from Badi Sadri.

However, it has also given tickets to many former ministers, including Pratap Singh Singhvi, Shrichand Kriplani, Narpat Singh Rajvi, Otaram Dewasi, Pushpendra Singh Ranaut, Anita Bhadel, Vasudev Devnani, Kalicharan Saraf and Rajendra Rathore.

Of these, Singhvi, Kriplani, Saraf and Bhadel are all supporters of Raje.

Following the Madhya Pradesh template, the saffron party continues to field 7 MPs for the Rajasthan assembly polls though.

Key among these is former Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who has been fielded from Jhotwara, and Diya Kumar. Both these MPs' names were included in the first list of candidates that the BJP published earlier as well.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has recently changed the polling date for the Rajasthan assembly polls from November 23 to November 25 due to "large-scale weddings" on the earlier announced date.