Rajasthan assembly polls: Congress releases 4th list of candidates

JAIPUR: The Congress party on Tuesday released its fourth list of candidates for the Rajasthan Assembly election in which Congress leader Manvendra Singh, son of late BJP leader Jaswant Singh, will contest from the Siwana assembly seat.

AICC spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh has been fielded from the Udaipur assembly seat.

Meanwhile, the party sources said that the suspense continues on the seats of Congress leaders Shanti Dhariwal, Mahesh Joshi, and Dharmendra Rathore, the close aides of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot who were served notice from the disciplinary committee of the AICC. However, all three leaders were issued a clean chit later on but according to the sources they are most likely to be "dropped" from the list of candidates this time.

Earlier in the day, the Congress held a meeting of the party's central election committee to decide remaining party candidates in Rajasthan.

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, and members of the Central Election Committee (CEC) attended the meeting.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and state party chief Govind Singh Dotasra were also present. However, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi did not attend the CEC meeting today as he had to fly to Telangana for a poll campaign. It is important to note that the BSP MLAs who were supporting the Gehlot government have been given tickets this time.

Congress has so far declared candidates on 151 of 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan.

The State has a long tradition of changing governments every five years and the Congress is hoping to buck the trend this time.

Ashok Gehlot has announced several welfare schemes in the run-up to polls and the party is projecting "a picture of unity".

Rajasthan is among five states which will go to the polls next month. The polling in the state will be held on November 25 and votes will be counted on December 3.