BSP announces three candidates for Rajasthan Assembly election

The six BSP MLAs who emerged victorious in the 2018 Rajasthan Assembly election had merged en bloc with the ruling Congress in 2019. Though the merger was perceived as a politically astute move of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, one of these MLAs, Rajendra Gudha, has since been dismissed as a Minister and suspended from the Assembly following his controversial remarks.

Taking a lead over other political parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced candidates for three seats in the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly election. The three constituencies are situated in Dholpur and Bharatpur districts in eastern Rajasthan and two of the seats were won by BSP candidates in 2018.

The six BSP MLAs who emerged victorious in the 2018 Assembly election had merged en bloc with the ruling Congress in 2019. Though the merger was perceived as a politically astute move of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, one of these MLAs, Rajendra Gudha, has since been dismissed as a Minister and suspended from the Assembly following his controversial remarks.

BSP State president Bhagwan Singh Baba said here on Friday that the party will field Ritesh Sharma from Dholpur, Khurshid Ahmed from Nagar and Khem Karan Touli from Nadbai. Both Nagar and Nadbai fall in Bharatpur district, from where BSP’s Wajib Ali and Joginder Singh Awana, respectively, had won in 2018. Shobha Rani Kushwaha had won the Dholpur seat.

Mr. Baba said though the BSP would contest this year’s election from all the 200 seats in the State, its focus would be on about 60 constituencies in nine districts, where Dalits and minority communities are in significant numbers. At present, 34 Assembly seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 25 for Scheduled Tribes.

BSP supremo Mayawati has stated that her party will decide on the post-poll alliances or joining coalitions in the four States going to polls this year – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana – following consultations with the stakeholders.

Dholpur candidate Mr. Sharma is the former chairman of Dholpur Municipal Council. He had contested and won the civic body election in 2010 on the BJP ticket after leaving Congress, but he came back to the Congress in 2018. He left Congress and joined the BSP in June this year.

Mr. Ahmed has been a two-time Sarpanch at Kithoor village panchayat in Alwar district’s Kishangarh Bas tehsil. He owns a hotel in Nagar and is active in the region. Mr. Touli was Zila Pramukh of Bharatpur between 2005 and 2010 and had fought the 2018 Assembly election from Nadbai as an independent candidate.