The opposition Congress in Rajasthan has decided to contest on it’s own, the November 13 Bye – Polls on 7 assembly seats without entering alliance with I.N.D.I.A. allies – the Rastriya Loktantrik Party(RLP) and Bharatiya Adivasi Party(BAP).
“We will go to the polls alone ; will field our own party candidates in all seven assembly segments, going to polls the next month”, the party state president Govind Singh Dotasara told reporters Monday afternoon, after a crucial meeting of the party coordination committee. He said, – “We don’t have poll alliance with any party in Rajasthan ; the I.N.D.I. alliance is in Delhi and not here in the state.”
The party state unit incharge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Leader of the opposition in Rajasthan assembly Tika Ram Julie and former Speaker CP Joshi participated in the meeting.
Dotasara and Julie said that the party has already made full preparations to contests these seats ; we have finalised panel of our prospective contestants for all poll bound seats. The panels are being forwarded to the party high command for approval and names of the candidates would be announced in a day or two, they informed.
Seven assembly seats – Jhunjhunu, Ramgarh, Dausa, Deoli – Uniara, Salumbar(ST), Khimsar and Chorasi(ST) will go to polls on November 13, process of filing nominations is on, last date for filing candidature is October 25. Four of the seats-Jhunjhunu, Ramgarh, Dausa and Deoli – Uniara, were won by the Congress in the December 2023 assembly elections while one seat each was bagged by the INDI allies the RLP (Khimsar) and the BAP(Chorasi -ST) and the ruling BJP (Salumbar ST).
The five seats Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Deoli – Uniara, Khimsar and Chorasi were vacated by the respective MLAs following their election to the Lok Sabha earlier this year. Bye-polls on seats of Ramgarh and Salumbar (ST) were necessitated due to deaths of the sitting legislators.
The grand old party’s decision of not going to polls in alliance with INDI formation may have impact the outcome of the battle of ballots in the Khimsar, Chorasi (ST) and the Salumbar (ST). Meanwhile, five candidates – four in Jhunjhunu and one in Dausa – have so far filed their nominations since opening of the process on October 18.