The Congress party has announced 22 more candidates for the upcoming Rajasthan assembly elections. However, one notable exclusion from the list is Public Health Engineering Department Minister Mahesh Joshi, who was denied a ticket from his Hawa Mahal constituency in Jaipur. Instead, the party has chosen to field Jaipur unit president R R Tiwari in his place.
With this announcement, the Congress has now declared candidates for 178 seats, leaving only one seat, Bharatpur, for the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
It is important to note that Joshi, along with two others, had previously received show-cause notices for not following the party high-command’s orders in September of last year. Alongside Joshi, Urban Development and Housing Minister Shanti Dhariwal and Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) Chairman Dharmendra Rathore were also served notices for going against the party’s whip in 2022.
The show-cause notices were issued after Dhariwal, Joshi, and Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas held a meeting at Dhariwal’s residence with MLAs who supported Chief Minister Gehlot and opposed a change of leadership in favor of Sachin Pilot.
The Rajasthan Assembly consists of 200 members and will hold elections on November 25. The counting of votes will take place on December 3.
