Ahead of the Assembly election in Rajasthan, 10 individuals, including retired IAS officer Antar Singh Nehra and Congress leader Suresh Mishra, have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday. Nehra, a former Jaipur collector, joined the party in the presence of state president CP Joshi and others, news agency PTI reported.
Suresh Mishra, who previously contested the 2008 assembly elections as a Congress candidate from Jaipur's Sanganer constituency, also joined the BJP. Mishra lost the 2008 elections to BJP's Ghanshyam Tiwari.
In addition to these individuals, some local leaders of Hanuman Beniwal's Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) in Nagaur also joined the BJP. This group includes Seema Chaudhary (Panchayat Samiti member), Geeta Devi (Pradhan), her husband Rewat Ram Daga, and former RLP spokesperson Mahipal Mahla, according to the report.
Other leaders who joined the BJP include Jagdish Bidiyasar, Jhalaram Bhakhar (Nagaur Zila Parishad Member from Congress), Bhagwana Ram Burdak (former Pradhan), and Dr. Suman Chawla (former district president of Mahila Congress-Hanumangarh), it said.
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The Rajasthan Assembly election is scheduled for November 25, with results to be declared on December 3. The Congress recently released its second list of 43 candidates for the election, which includes several sitting MLAs, including 15 state ministers, and former chief secretary Niranjan Arya. It is to be noted that the party has also fielded candidates who supported the Congress government during the political crisis in 2020.
State ministers Govind Ram Meghwal and B D Kalla have been fielded from Khajuwala (Scheduled Caste) and Bikaner West, respectively. Minister of State for Higher Education Rajendra Singh Yadav was fielded from the Kotputli seat. The Congress seeks to retain power based on the achievements of the Gehlot government over the past five years and welfare schemes implemented during its tenure.