Congress announces 2 more candidates for Rajasthan, leaves Nagaur seat for RLP

Jaipur: The Congress party on Saturday announced two more candidates for Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan while leaving one seat for its alliance partner Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP).

Congress has given a ticket to a new face fielding Anil Chopra from Jaipur Rural, while Rajasthan minister Bhajan Lal Jatav has been fielded from Karauli-Sawai Madhopur.

This is the second seat which Congress left for its alliance partner. Earlier, the party had left the Sikar seat for a Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate and ex-MLA Amraram.

Chopra is the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee secretary and has been the president of the student union of the University of Rajasthan. Jatav was a cabinet minister in the former Congress-led government in the state.

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The party has left the Nagaur seat for RLP headed by former Nagaur MP and present RLP MLA Hanuman Beniwal.

Beniwal won the Nagaur Lok Sabha seat in 2019 in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but later he separated over the farmers’ protest issue in December 2020.

Meanwhile, the BJP has fielded MP Jyoti Mirdha from Nagaur. Mirdha joined the BJP in the run-up to the 2023 assembly elections.

In the 2018 assembly polls, the RLP won three of the 58 seats and secured a 2.4% vote share (856,038). In the 2023 assembly polls, the RLP contested 70 seats and received over 2.41% vote share (940,000).

Political analyst Manish Godha said the alliance is made to consolidate the Jat votes and also to diffuse the shifting of some members of the Mirdha family joining the BJP. Beniwal is a popular face among the Jat community across the state, and his differences with the Mirdha are well known.

Godha said Beniwal has not only been an MP but has proved his potential in the last few polls. “His alliance with Congress will help in Jat-dominated seats, especially of Noeth-Western Rajasthan be it Nagaur, Jodhpur, Sikar, Churu, Jhunjhunu or Barmer,” said Godha.

A Jat leader and sitting Congress MLA said Beniwal’s alliance will be fruitful to the party not only in Nagaur but also in Shekhwati and Marwar regions.

BJP leader Mukesh Pareek said the tussle between Congress and RLP has been known to all. Beniwal had levelled corruption charges on the Congress government on many occasions and he has joined hands with them to settle his political ambitions, Pareek said. The people of Nagaur will teach a lesson, he added.

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With the latest list, the Congress has so far fielded 17 candidates out of the total 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state and left two seats for alliance – Sikar for CPI (M) and Nagaur for RLP.

Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan will be held in two phases, on April 19 and 26.

In the first phase, voting will be held in 12 Lok Sabha constituencies – Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur on April 19.

In the first phase on April 19, 12 seats of Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur, Alwar Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur will go to polls.

The remaining 13 seats of Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer, Jalore, Udaipur, Banswara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran will go to polls in the second phase on April 26.

A by-poll in the Bagidora assembly constituency under Banswara the Lok Sabha constituency, will also be held in the second phase on April 26. The seat fell vacant after Congress MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya left Congress and joined BJP a few days back.

Malviya is contesting the Lok Sabha election from the Banswara seat as a BJP candidate.