Congress adds 61 more candidates for Rajasthan polls

On October 31, the Congress announced 61 additional candidates for the Rajasthan Assembly elections, including Manvendra Singh, a BJP defector, and Gourav Vallabh, the party’s national spokesperson. Singh has been nominated from Siwana, while Vallabh has been fielded from Udaipur. Seven sitting MLAs have been denied tickets in the Congress’s fourth and fifth lists of candidates, which were made public on Tuesday. The party has named 14 incumbent MLAs, including two Independent candidates who emerged victorious in the 2018 Assembly election and two additional candidates who emerged victorious on BSP tickets before joining the Congress. The party has also fielded two rebels from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The names of the likely contenders for the Rajasthan elections were deliberated by the Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) earlier in the evening. Attending the meeting were All India Congress Committee (AICC) state coordinator Sukhjinder Randhawa, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, and Govind Dotasra, head of the state unit of the party. Along with the CEC members, the meeting was also attended by K C Venugopal, the organization’s general secretary of the AICC, and Gaurav Gogoi, the head of the Rajasthan screening committee.