Rajasthan Elections / 4 leaders kneeled before CM Gehlot, 2 dozen candidates out of the field

Rajasthan Elections: There is a tussle for power between Congress and BJP in the Rajasthan Assembly elections, for which every possible move is being made. Many independent candidates standing in front of stalwarts like CM Ashok Gehlot to Vasundhara Raje, former Deputy CM Sachin Pilot and Pratap Singh Khachariyawas have made the path easier by withdrawing their nominations. Not only this, in more than two dozen seats, candidates from BSP, Aam Aadmi Party, RLP and many other small candidates have surrendered before the stalwarts of Congress and BJP.

A direct contest is being considered between Congress and BJP and a close contest is being seen. This is the reason why both the major parties are leaving no stone unturned. Veteran leaders of Congress and BJP are also trying to manage the candidates of independent and small parties contesting against them. In such a situation, Congress and BJP leaders are trying to make their path easier by fielding candidates from BSP, RLP, BTP and Aam Aadmi Party with the dream of becoming kingmakers.

There are more than two dozen assembly seats in Rajasthan, where till now the candidates of small parties have withdrawn their nominations after filing their nominations. If the nomination is not withdrawn then now support has been announced. The maximum number of candidates leaving the field are from BSP. About a dozen BSP candidates have announced their support for Congress or BJP. Apart from this, three candidates are from Hanuman Beniwal's RLP and the rest are from other parties. Similarly, some independent candidates have also left the field before voting.

Easy path for Chief Minister and former CM

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has contested the elections from Sardarpura assembly constituency of Jodhpur. Four independent candidates who had contested against Gehlot had withdrawn their nominations. Gehlot has been successful in convincing independent candidates like Shanaz Bannon, Mahesh, Deepak Mantri and Suresh. Similarly, former CM Vasundhara Raje is contesting from her traditional seat Jhalrapatan. This time, BJP's Shailendra Yadav and Ajay Kumar had filed nomination as independents against Vasundhara from Jhalrapatan, but Vasundhara Raje was successful in convincing them. Both these BJP leaders have left the electoral field in support of him.

Tarusha Parashar, who had contested on BSP ticket from Hawamahal seat, withdrew her name and joined BJP. From this seat, Aam Aadmi Party candidate Pappu Qureshi joined Congress. CM Gehlot did the work of convincing Pappu. BSP's Rajendra Gudha had won the Udaipurwati seat last time, who is contesting from Shiv Sena this time. BSP candidate Sandeep Saini has supported Congress candidate Bhagwan Ram Saini and withdrawn his nomination.

BSP candidate from Sanganer Assembly seat, Ramlal Chaudhary has withdrawn his name and joined Congress. He has supported Congress candidate Pushpendra Bhardwaj. From Adarsh Nagar seat, BSP's Hasanraja defeated Congress's Rafiq Khan, from Jaisalmer, BSP's Prahlad Ram defeated Congress's Ruparam, from Bhinmal, BSP's Krishna Kumar defeated Congress's Samarjit Singh, from Rajkheda, BSP's Dharampal defeated BJP's Neerja Sharma from Sirohi seat. BSP's Suresh Kumar has supported Congress's Sanyam Lodha and BSP's Tulcharam from Pokaran has supported BJP's Pratappuri Maharaj.

Road to Pilot and Khachariyawas easy

Former Deputy CM of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot has contested from Tonk Assembly seat for the second time. Half a dozen Congressmen had rebelled against Pilot and filed nominations as independents, among whom were leaders like Niamuddin, Rasheed Khan, Mohammad Omar, Ahmed Qadir and Akhtar. Since it was a Muslim-dominated seat, Pilot's challenge had increased when he entered the electoral fray, but he was successful in taming them and returned the nominations of all the seven Muslims.

At the same time, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, a high profile minister in the government led by Ashok Gehlot and veteran Congress leader, is contesting from the Civil Lines assembly seat of Jaipur, against whom many party leaders had rebelled and entered the electoral fray. Arun Chaturvedi was contesting from BSP while Rashid Aham and Naresh Pareek were contesting as independent candidates, but Khachariyawas was successful in convincing all the three leaders and also returned their nominations in his support.

RLP candidate from Bikaner West seat Abdul Majid Khokhar withdrew his name in support of Congress candidate BD Kalla. On Sardarshahr seat, RLP candidate Lalchand Mund withdrew his name and supported independent Rajkaran Chaudhary. On Dantaramgarh seat, RLP candidate Mahavir Prasad Bijarania has withdrawn his name and supported Congress candidate Virendra Singh. On Barmer seat, RLP candidate Jogaram Dudi has left the election field in favor of independent candidate Priyanka Chaudhary.