Rajasthan elections 2018: Sensing good show, Congress sitting MPs join ticket queue

JAIPUR: Top Congress leaders in Rajasthan are vying for tickets anticipating a ‘good performance’ by their party in the upcoming assembly elections. Even those who had contested the parliamentary polls earlier are pushing for their candidature. One of the two current Lok Sabha MPs from Congress has also indicated his willingness to try his luck in the polls.

“It would be a party decision. I am ready for whatever the party asks me to do,” he said.

Congress had drawn a blank in the 2014 general elections from Rajasthan. Later, Karan Singh Yadav won from Alwar and Raghu Sharma from Ajmer.

“It was after these bypoll victories that the Congress has come into the reckoning. Now, Rajasthan is the best bet for the party’s revival,” said a senior Congress functionary.

Political analysts feel that the rush for Congress tickets this time is due to the suspense over the chief ministerial candidate.

“Had the party declared the CM face, like BJP has done by projecting Vasundhara Raje, other senior Congress leaders would not have shown so much of interest,” said Ram Pratap Singh, a political analyst.

In 2013, Congress had fought by projecting the then chief minister Ashok Gehlot as the CM candidate. That time, most of the senior leaders contested the Lok Sabha elections giving the assembly polls a miss, which were held about six months before the 2014 LS elections.

“Party stalwarts Sachin Pilot, Jitendra Singh, CP Joshi, Girija Vyas, Mahesh Joshi, Namo Narayan Meena and Ijyaraj Singh, among others, unsuccessfully contested the elections then. Now, focus is on the state assembly polls where dislodging Raje looks more “doable” than engaging in the “complicated” 2019 general elections,” he said.

Earlier in 2008, CP Joshi, the then state party chief, was slated to become the chief minister (though not declared).

But he lost the election by a solitary vote and Ashok Gehlot was given the responsibility