Rajasthan polls: Congress to decide candidates on October 18, may drop several ministers and MLAs

Rajasthan Assembly Elections: The Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting will be held in Delhi on October 18 to deliberate on the selection of candidates for the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly elections.

Earlier the party had convened the CEC meet for the other four states and announced the candidates for 144 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 30 in Chhattisgarh, 55 in Telangana, and 39 in Mizoram.
The Congress may deny tickets to several current MLAs in Rajasthan, including some ministers. In light of this, Congress does not want to give much time to such people by announcing the tickets early.
In Rajasthan, the Congress party has conducted a total of five surveys. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has initiated four of these surveys. The first survey was done to evaluate the performance of the MLAs, the second to assess the government's work, the third one was done to measure the impact of the government's schemes on voters and the fourth survey was focused on the party's workers. Additionally, there is one more survey conducted by the Congress party's central leadership. Based on the findings of these surveys, the Congress party will field its candidates in the electoral arena.
According to sources, a survey within the Congress party has recommended that the party should field at least 50 per cent of new candidates in the upcoming elections. Therefore, the Congress may cut tickets for a significant number of its existing MLAs this time. It is likely that the party could issue tickets to 15 to 30 of its current MLAs, including the possibility of four ministers not getting tickets.
The Congress party had previously implemented this practice in 1985. At that time, the party had denied tickets to 13 MLAs on charges of corruption, which resulted in the party losing some of its seats and being reduced to 115 seats in the assembly. The decision to label their own MLAs as corrupt and deny them tickets proved costly for the Congress in the elections.
Rajasthan will go to polls on November 25 while the counting of votes will take place on December 3. Rajasthan has 200 total seats. In Rajasthan – which will see a direct fight between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party on November 25 – anti-incumbency is an important factor. Since 1993, when the BJP came to power after a stint of President’s rule, the state has alternated between the Congress and the BJP.
In 2018, Congress won 100 seats in the 2018 Assembly polls. BJP followed at 73 seats while BSP garnered 6 seats. Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) gathered 3 seats with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) mustering 2 seats each. Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) managed to grab just one seat while there were 13 independent candidates in the 2018 Assembly Elections.
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