Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union Ministers Kailash Choudhary and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and state BJP president CP Joshi are among 152 contestants left in the fray for the IInd phase polls in 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Rajasthan on April 26.

On the last day of withdrawal of nomination on Monday, out of 191 contestants, 39 candidates withdrew their nomination papers after scrutiny, leaving 152 in the fray.

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Earlier in the day, PCC president Govind Singh Dotasara announced that the INDIA bloc has forged an alliance with the Bharatiya Adivasi Party (BAP) in Banswara. They decided to support BAP candidate Rajkumar Roat and asked Congress candidate Arvind Damor to withdraw his nomination. However, by the end of the day at 5 pm, Damor had not submitted his withdrawal request.

Senior Congress MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya who quit his MLAship and joined the BJP will be contesting on the Banswara (SC) seat now against INDIA alliance candidate Roat.

Congress’ former Speaker C P Joshi is contesting from the Bhilwara seat, Vaibhav Gehlot, son of former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, from Jalore, and Hanuman Beniwal, the alliance partner of INDIA bloc’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, from the Nagaur seat.

BJP’s Birla is in a keen contest on the Kota-Bundi seat with Prahalad Gunjal, the former BJP MLA who left the party and joined the Congress last month.

Jal Shakti Minister Shekhawat, two times MP in 2019 & 2024, is facing Congress’s Karan Singh Uchiyarda on the Jodhpur LS seat.

Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and whose name took a hype during the nomination of Rajasthan chief ministership, will be in a triangular contest against Congress’s Umedaram Beniwal, and Independent MLA Raveendra Singh Bhati.

Three sitting BJP MPs are contesting in the upcoming elections. P P Choudhary, a lawyer in SC, is competing against Congress’s Sangeeta Beniwal in Pali, while Bhagirath Choudhary is running in Ajmer against Congress’s Ram Chandra Choudhary. State BJP President CP Joshi seeks re-election in Chittorgarh against Congress’s Udailal Anjana, while former BJP chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s son, Dushyant Singh, is contesting for the fifth time in Jhalawar-Baran against Congress’s Urmila Jain.

The second-phase polls on 13 seats is scheduled for April 26. These 13 LS seats are Ajmer, Nagaur, Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer, Jalore, Banswara, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran.