The Congress in its sixth list of 23 contestants issued on Saturday midnight for the Rajasthan assembly poll dropped its senior cabinet minister Dr Mahesh Joshi and made alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on one seat of Bharatpur where a sitting Minister Dr Subhash Garg (RLD) is already holding the seat since 2018 assembly polls.

Dr Joshi, PHED Minister and whose office was raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) tried his best to retain Jaipur’s Hawamahal constituency but the party fielded an ordinary worker R R Tiwari.

Mahesh Joshi, who once held the position of Chief Whip in the assembly, was on the top of the controversy when his son was allegedly involved in a woman sexual harassment case. In his last minutes attempts Joshi also approached the Opposition BJP but his credential of Jal Jeevan Mission projects and funds’ utilization kept him away.

Out of 23 contestants, the party has fielded 12 new and young faces. One Independent candidate from Shahpura Alok Beniwal who supported the Gehlot government during the political crisis in 2020 was also obliged at his same constituency.

Out of 179 candidates fielded so far in the assembly of 200 MLAs, the Congress also denied tickets to 9 sitting MLAs, however it has given tickets to 81 MLAs. Still 4 Gehlot’s ministers and 7 sitting MLAs are waiting for the final list of 21 contestants to be released later today as tomorrow is the last day of filing nomination papers.

BJP has released four lists and so far has released the list of 184 candidates. Candidates for 16 seats are yet to be announced. As of today about 535 contestants have filed their nomination papers for the 200 assembly constituencies’ polls in the state.

Till yesterday, altogether 1079 contestants had filed their nomination papers in 200 assembly constituencies, an election department spokesman said. November 6 is the last date of filing papers, security will take place on 7th, and withdrawal by November 9. The results would be declared on December 3.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will file his nomination papers from the Sardarpura assembly constituency tomorrow and nomination-rally will be addressed by the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge at Jodhpur.