New Delhi:

The Congress on Tuesday released a fourth list of candidates for the Rajasthan assembly elections, naming 56 leaders including national spokesperson Gourav Vallabh from Udaipur and Manvendra Singh, son of the late BJP stalwart Jaswant Singh, from Siwana.

The Congress has so far announced 151 candidates for the November 25 polls in the desert state, where the party seeks to buck the trend of incumbent governments being voted out.

At a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee earlier in the evening, the Congress also discussed the names of probable candidates for the Rajasthan assembly.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of the state Sukhjinder Randhawa and the party’s state unit chief Govind Dotasra attended the meeting.

AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal and Rajasthan screening committee chief Gaurav Gogoi, besides members of the CEC were among others who attended the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting.

The Congress had on Thursday released its third list of 19 candidates for the polls. The first list of candidates for Rajasthan had 43 candidates and the second has 33.

The 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will go to polls on November 25 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jaipur (Rajasthan):

Taking a dig at Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former Rajasthan chief minister and BJP leader Vasundhara Raje on Monday said while the Congress makes many promises to the people before elections, there are no guarantees that they would be fulfilled if they win.

Speaking to ANI on Monday, the senior BJP leader said, “A few days ago, Priyanka Gandhi visited Rajasthan. She expressed concern over the state of women in Rajasthan, which is under Congress rule currently. If they (Rajasthan govt) had implemented the (Centre’s) ‘Nari Shakti’ scheme in earnest, it would have helped the women of Rajasthan. Whenever she and her brother (Rahul Gandhi) come visiting the state, they make plenty of promises to the people. However, with the Congress, there’s no guarantee that they would deliver on their promises if elected.”

Claiming that the Congress government did not waive off farmer loans despite being in power for five years, Ms Raje, who is seeking a fresh term in the Assembly from the Jhalrapatan constituency, added, “Owing to rising crimes against women in the state, families fear for the safety of their female members.”

Addressing an election rally in Jhunjhunu earlier, Priyanka Gandhi announced that the Congress would give Rs 10,000 annually to women as honorarium if elected in the state.

The polls for the 200-member assembly in Rajasthan will be held on November 25.

The counting of votes, along with those of four other poll-bound states, will take place on December 3.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jaipur:

BJP MLA from Chittorgarh assembly constituency Chandrabhan Singh Akya, who has been denied a ticket by the party, on Tuesday announced that he will contest from the seat against the BJP’s official candidate Narpat Singh Rajvi.

Akya has also filed a police complaint alleging that an anonymous caller had threatened to kill him and his family if he contested the upcoming election and demanded security.

“I will file the nomination on November 2. I am not contesting the election, workers have to contest the election. On October 26, the election office will be inaugurated,” Akya told reporters after a public meeting.

Akya’s supporters have been protesting after the BJP gave the ticket from Chittorgarh seat to former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s son-in-law Narpat Singh Rajvi, a sitting MLA from Vidhyadhar Nagar seat in Jaipur.

Assembly polls in Rajasthan are due on November 25.

Asked about Mr Akya’s police complaint, Chittorgarh Sadar SHO Bhawani Singh said that the MLA has alleged that an unidentified person called him from different numbers and threatened to kill him and vandalise his office.

“The matter is being investigated,” the officer said.

Mr Akya in his complaint said that when he did not pick up the call from one number, “the caller called him from another repeatedly and threatened to kill him and his family”.

Following the repeated calls on Monday night, he complained to the police on Tuesday and demanded security for his family.

Mr Akya has contested successfully twice from Chittorgarh in 2013 and 2018.

The MLA alleged that he was denied the ticket at the behest of the party’s state president CP Joshi, who is an MP from the Chittorgarh parliamentary seat.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jaipur:

Vasundhara Raje, former Rajasthan chief minister, was among the 83 candidates announced by BJP to contest in the upcoming state assembly elections. Ms Raje will contest from her traditional Jhalrapatan seat.

Ms Raje has been at loggerheads with Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and has not been visible in BJP’s election blitz yet. The two leaders have not been close ever since Ms Raje opposed Mr Shekhawat’s appointment as BJP chief in Rajasthan in 2018 saying it would distance the jaat community from the party in the 2018 elections.

Ms Raje being sidelined in BJP’s first list of candidates had drawn sharp reactions from the opposition. But in a move that is seen as an attempt to balance political equations, several of Ms Raje’s supporters also feature in BJP’s new list.

But after the party’s Central Election Committee meeting on Friday, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president JP Nadda, BJP has decided to bank on the popularity of Ms Raje, who is accepted across the different voter bases in the state.

Vasundhara Raje comes from the Scindia royal family, the former rulers of Gwalior, now in Madhya Pradesh. Her mother Vijayaraje Scindia was a prominent leader in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) and later in the BJP. Her brother Madhavrao Scindia was a prominent Congress leader.

In its second list, BJP also fielded Narpat Singh Rajvi from Chittorgarh from Vidhyadhar Nagar seat after its earlier decision to deny the five-term MLA. Mr Rajvi is the son-in-law of its stalwart leader Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and his name missing from the first list triggered a backlash from a section of party workers.

The BJP leadership’s U-turn on his candidature is being seen as a damage-control exercise after Mr Rajvi reacted angrily and cited his family legacy to hit out at the party.

Elections will be held in the five crucial states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Mizoram between November 7 and 30, and the results will be declared on December 3, the Election Commission said. All 200 seats in Rajasthan will see voting on November 25.

In the 2018 assembly polls, the Congress won 100 seats, while the BJP had 73. The Congress finally formed the government, and Ashok Gehlot was installed as Chief Minister, after support from the Bahujan Samaj Party, which claimed six seats.

Jaipur:

The murder of two young men has become the latest political flashpoint in Rajasthan. The men, in their early 20s, were chased and then deliberately ran over by more than 12 men in three SUVs.  Members of the Scheduled Caste Meghwal community have refused to accept the bodies and are sitting on a dharna at Kuchaman, a city in central Rajasthan, demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.  

The police said the murder took place on Monday night after an altercation at a roadside eatery. The victims were returning from a fair ground. The alleged killers had given chase and caught up with Raju Ram, Chunni Lal and Kishna Ram  4  km away at Ranasar village near Kuchaman city.

CCTV footage just before the incident shows more than 12 men in three vehicles — a Scorpio, a Bolero and a Bolero camper — driving out at full speed from a dhaba and taking a reckless turn on the highway.  

Two of the men died on the spot and a third, Kishna Ram, is admitted in a hospital in Jaipur.

Shrawan Bugalia, a relative of one of the victims, said: “We are angry these people have been brutally killed, we want justice and police should investigate this case properly.”

Three people have been detained while more than 16 others have been identified and the police are on the lookout for them.

The Rajasthan government, in a damage control mode, has sent senior police officers to the spot to defuse the situation. One of them, MN Dinesh, said: “Three people have been detained and we have identified 16 and 30 teams have been made to to catch the accused. The entire Ajmer range is working on it. The accused are definitely criminals.”

Earlier today, Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore reached the dharna spot. “The government is not taking action. There is a breakdown of law and order if such a crime can happen,” he said.

In a election year, the anger among the Meghwal community can singe the Congress if quick action is not taken. 34 assembly seats are reserved for the 17 per cent Scheduled Caste population in the state. Of these, 19 are with the Congress, and the government is in damage control mode to retain the traditional support base.