Rajasthan Assembly Election 2018: Congress fields BJP veteran Jaswant Singh's son against Vasundhara Raje; releases second list of 32 candidates
The Congress has released the second list of 32 candidates for the Rajasthan assembly election on Saturday. Rahul Gandhi-led the grand old party has fielded veteran Bhartiya Janta Party leader Jaswant Singh's son and former BJP leader Manvendra Singh from Jharapatan against Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
In 2013 assembly elections, Manvendra Singh was as a BJP candidate from the Sheo assembly constituency of Barmer district. While, his father, Jaswant Singh was denied ticket by the party in 2014 Lok Sabha polls after which he contested elections as an independent candidate and lost the seat to BJP's Sonaram, who had joined the party from the Congress and was backed by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
Manvendra Singh's name was released by the Congress this afternoon in the second list of 32 candidates for the upcoming polls in the state.
Congress releases the second list of 32 candidates for Rajasthan Assembly elections. pic.twitter.com/OsypSUaHB1
— ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2018
The 54-year-old Rajasthan lawmaker Jaswant Singh quit the BJP on September 22 with a parting shot, "Kamal Ka Phool, Hamaari Bhool" (lotus was my mistake). He had also lashed out at the BJP for its style of functioning at the centre and the state. "There is a problem with the culture of governance and there is rampant corruption," he told NDTV.
For him leaving the BJP wasn't easy, "it was my family", he said. "When no one heard me within the family and a friend (Rahul Gandhi) heard me, it was then that I took this step."
In the last assembly elections in 2013, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won a majority in the 200-seat Rajasthan Assembly. The tenure of Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in Rajasthan will end on January 20, 2019
The upcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan are scheduled to be held in a single phase on December 7, 2018. Results for Rajasthan Assembly elections 2018 will be declared on December 11 along with results of Assembly elections in four other states - Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram.
First published: 17 November 2018, 16:02 IST