Rajasthan Assembly polls: BJP awards tickets to kin of party leaders

Family first

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has awarded tickets to close family members of several party leaders to contest the December 7 assembly election in Rajasthan. Rajasthan has 200 assembly seats. In the BJP's first list of 131 candidates released on Sunday night, the party has given ticket to its 85 sitting MLAs and has taken care of family members of prominent leaders who were denied ticket. It has decided to field Ramswaroop Lamba, the son of late MP Sanwar Lal Jat, and Shailesh Singh, the son of late former state minister Digamber Singh. Senior leader Devi Singh Bhati's daughter-in-law Poonam Kanwar will contest from Kolayat seat in Bikaner, Rishi Bansal's wife Ritu from Bayana seat in Bharatpur district, former minister Nandlal Meena's son Hemant Meena from Pratapgarh, former legislator Kailash Bhansali's nephew Atul Bhansali from Jodhpur and former legislator Kunjilal's son Rajendra Meena from Bamanwas. 

Tomar steps into Kumar’s shoes

After repeated standoffs with the Opposition in Parliament in 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had brought Ananth Kumar in place of M Venkaiah Naidu as parliamentary affairs minister. After Kumar's death on Monday, the PM and Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah (pictured) were looking for his successor for the last two sessions of the current Lok Sabha. Speculation was rife as to who among the cabinet ministers could do the job. Ministers of state Vijay Goel and Arjun Ram Meghwal were managing the ministry. Sources said Goel, given his rapport with the Opposition leaders, could be promoted. There was also the possibility of human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar getting additional charge of parliamentary affairs. Eventually, rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar was given the charge.

Money matters

The nine assembly seats from Indore are fielding Madhya Pradesh's richest candidates. Among them, 18 candidates contesting on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress tickets share more than Rs 4.5 billion worth of property. The Congress candidates are richer than the BJP ones. According to the affidavits submitted to the Election Commission, Sanjay Shukla, contesting with a Congress ticket from the Indore-1 seat, is the richest, with property worth Rs 1.4 billion. Surjit Singh Chaddha, also contesting on  a Congress ticket from the Indore-4 seat, is second on the list with property worth Rs 820 million. Satyanarayan Patel, contesting from Indore-3, has property worth more than Rs 760 million.