Rajasthan polls: Congress releases fifth list of candidates

The Congress released its fifth list of candidates for the Rajasthan Assembly election on Tuesday.
The party has fielded Vidhyadhar Choudhary from Phulera, Rooparam Choudhary from Jaisalmer, Saleh Mohammad from Pokaran, Hangami Lal Mewara from Asind, and Dhiraj Gurjar from Jahazpur
This comes after the party released its fourth list of candidates on Tuesday, in which Congress leader Manvendra Singh, son of late BJP leader Jaswant Singh, was announced to contest from the Siwana assembly seat.

AICC spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh has been fielded from the Udaipur assembly seat.
Meanwhile, the party sources said that the suspense continues on the seats of Congress leaders Shanti Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi, and Dharmendra Rathore, the close aides of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who were served notice from the disciplinary committee of the AICC.

However, all three leaders were issued a clean chit later on but according to the sources, they are most likely to be “dropped” from the list of candidates this time.

Earlier in the day, the Congress held a meeting of the party’s central election committee to decide the remaining party candidates in Rajasthan.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and members of the Central Election Committee (CEC) attended the meeting.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and state party chief Govind Singh Dotasra were also present.
However, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi did not attend the CEC meeting as he had to fly to Telangana for a poll campaign.
Pertinently, the BSP MLAs who were supporting the Gehlot government have been given tickets this time.
Congress has so far declared candidates for 151 of the 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan.
The state has a long tradition of changing governments every five years and the Congress is hoping to buck the trend this time.

Ashok Gehlot has announced several welfare schemes in the run-up to the polls and the party is projecting “a picture of unity.”
Rajasthan is among five states that will go to the polls next month. Polling in the state will be held on November 25 and votes will be counted on December 3.