Keeping up with its tradition, the BJP failed to give tickets to Muslim candidates in the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly election, while the Congress has fielded 15 contenders from the minority community this time.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has many ‘Alpsankhyak Morcha’ (minority cells), has been hesitant in fielding minority candidates from the 200 assembly seats in the northern state. The trend remained the same in the last assembly polls as well as the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

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Asked about the development, Hameed Khan Mewati, who heads the Rajasthan BJP Minority Cell, told The Statesman, “This is the party’s policy and decision. What we can say?”

In the 2018 assembly election, the saffron party had to budge to the pressure of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje. The party fielded Yunus Khan against the Congress’ Sachin Pilot, but he lost the polls. This time, Khan is contesting from Deedwana as an Independent in revolt against the party.

In another instance of utter confusion over a candidate’s religious identity, the BJP gave ticket to 40-year-old Abhishek Singh from Masuda (Ajmer district) in its fifth list of candidates on November 5, but replaced him with Virendra Singh Kanawat on the eve of filing nomination papers.

“A television channel in Rajasthan spread lies that I belonged to a Muslim family. This was enough for the party to reconsider my candidature. I came to know about it when Kanawat’s name appeared in the list,” Singh, who joined the BJP five years ago and is the Pradesh Mantri of BJP-OBC cell, told The Statesman.

“I am Rawat-Rajput, the descendent of Samrat Prithivi Raj Chouhan. It is an insult to compare me with a Muslim. The misleading TV report also went viral on social media that I belong to the Cheetah-Mehrat community which follows Islam. This is wrong and I lost my ticket,” he rued.

“My community (Rawat-Rajput) will file a legal case against those who claimed that I belonged to another religion,” the BJP leader added.

Asked if he recommended candidates from the party’s minority cell for the state polls, Mewati said, “Yes, we did forward 8-10 names of aspirants to the party high command.”

He, however, defended the minority cell and said besides obtaining tickets, there are a number of other work that the party’s minority cell does.

In contrast, Congress general secretary Swarnim Chaturvedi said his party has always given representation to all communities and religions. “This time, the party has given tickets to 15 Muslim contestants. Even in the current Ashok Gehlot government, two ministers as well as seven MLAs belong to the Muslim community.”