Congress fields bigwigs in first Rajasthan list; Gehlot, Pilot, Joshi, Vyas in fray

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 16

The Congress on Thursday night declared its first list of 152 candidates for the December 7 Rajasthan elections fielding all its bigwigs to take on the ruling BJP.

Former state chief minister and sitting AICC general secretary organisation Ashok Gehlot will defend his current Assembly segment of Sardarpura in Jodhpur while state Congress president Sachin Pilot will contest his first state election from Tonk.

Former rural development minister CP Joshi has also been nominated from Nathdwara, from where he had lost the Assembly election by one vote in 2008.

Girja Vyas, who is member of the Congress central election committee and was former MP, has been fielded from Udaipur.

Gehlot, Pilot and Joshi are all described in Congress circles as CM probables should the Congress win the state on December 11.

Also in the fray is Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly Rameshwar Lal Dudi from Nokha. Dudi is a formidable Jat Leader in the state and has nurtured chief ministerial ambitions for decades.

AICC Secretary for Punjab Harish Choudhry will contest from Baytoo, while Harish Meena, the former BJP MP from Dausa who joined Congress recently, has been fielded from Deoli Uniara.

The Congress is hopeful of trouncing the BJP in Rajasthan and has held hectic and prolonged deliberations before releasing the first list past midnight on Thursday.

The state assembly has 200 seats. Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana Kumari Selja is the screening committee chairperson for the Rajasthan elections.

The list was delayed on account of differences between leaders on the winnable candidates in a section of controversial seats plus due to debate on whether to field all stalwarts in the polls.

In MP, none of the Congress titans--former CM Digvijay Singh, state chief Kamal Nath, campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia—are contesting elections.