Nomination process for bypolls begins

JAIPUR/ALWAR: Congress probable Karan Singh Yadav and BJP's Jaswant Singh Yadav were among the four persons who took nomination forms from the district election office on the first day of filing nominations on Wednesday.
Congress has already declared Dr Karan Singh Yadav as its candidate from Alwar but BJP is yet to announce its candidate. Jaswant Singh Yadav, a minister in the Raje ministry, is said to be the front runner for the seat. He has also availed a nomination form from the election office. They have time till January 10 to file the nominations. The scrutiny of nominations will be held on January 11 and the last date of withdrawal of nomination is January 15.

Bypolls will be held for Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha seats and Mandalgarh (Bhilwara) assembly seat on January 29 and the result will be announced on February 1.

It's a prestige battle for the ruling BJP as both the parliamentary seats and the assembly seat were held by the party. The deaths of sitting MPs, Mahant Chandnath from Alwar and Sawarlal Jat from Ajmer, and the untimely death of party MLA Kriti Kumari have necessitated the bypolls in three constituencies.

Chief minister Vasundhara Raje has camped in Ajmer and Alwar, personally, attending to the grievances of the people and sanctioning development works.

The opposition, Congress, is also not taking any chances as wins in this bypoll would boost the party's morale ahead of assembly polls scheduled in December this year.

Alwar district collector Rajan Vishal said a helpdesk has been set up to help candidates file nomination papers and to apprise prospective candidates of the rules and regulations of the Election Commission (EC).

According to the election commission Alwar has 18,18,578 registered voters, an increase of 21, 065 after the last revision of electoral rolls.

Similarly, the Mandalgarh (Bhilwara) assembly constituency has 2,31,218 voters, officials said.