Rajasthan Assembly Election 2018: Denied Ticket, Several BJP Leaders Likely to Quit Party, Say Reports

On Sunday, BJP had released the first list of 131 candidates.

New Delhi: Many BJP leaders are likely to quit the part after they failed to get a ticket to contest in the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly election 2018. The BJP had released the first list of the 131 candidates on Sunday. News agency IANS claimed that the supporters of dissidents have been reaching the BJP headquarters in large numbers to express their anguish over the decisions of the party.

Among the prominent names include State Minister Surendra Goyal, who has sent a resignation letter to Rajasthan party President Madanlal Saini saying that he was resigning from the primary membership of the BJP. He has been a five-time MLA for BJP. He has said he will contest the upcoming election as an Independent from Jaitaran seat.

Another leader Habibur Rehman, an MLA from Nagaur, has also quit the party. He is expected to join the Congress. Kuldeep Dhankhar, a former General Secretary of the BJP, also quit after he was overlooked for the election on Monday.

The names of Health Minister Kali Charan Saraf, Transport Minister Yunus Khan and Industries Minister Rajpal Singh Shekhawat are also missing from the list of candidates and speculation is rife that they too can desert the BJP.

Meanwhile, Avinash Rai Khanna, the BJP’s election in charge of Rajasthan, said that the party was doing all it can to end the dissidence. “We are in the process of talking to the dissidents. Our leaders are trying to meet them and talk to them. We won’t allow any of them to leave the party,” he said.

On Sunday, BJP had released the first list of 131 candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in Rajasthan. As per the list, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will contest from Jhalrapatan assembly constituency from where she has been contesting since 2003.

Kailash Meghwal, the speaker in the outgoing Rajasthan assembly has been shifted from Bhilwara district’s Shahpura constituency to Jhunjhun’s Pilani constituency.

The BJP has fielded 25 new faces and 85 sitting MLAs for the assembly polls. Apart from this, 12 female candidates, 32 young candidates, 17 candidates from Schedule Caste category, 19 from Schedule Tribe category have also made it to the first list.

Other ministers who got the tickets are Gulab Chand Kataria, Gajendra Singh Khimsar, Vasudev Devnani, Anita Bhadel, Kiran Maheshwari, Arun Chaturvedi, Ram Pratap, Krishnendra Kaur Deepa, and Rajendra Rathore.

The assembly polls in the state are slated to take place on December 7 in a single phase for all 200 seats, which are at stake in the state. The counting of votes will take place on December 11. In last assembly polls, the BJP had won 163 of the 200 assembly seats in the state.

(IANS inputs)