Rajasthan Polls: Manvendra Singh to fight Vasundhara Raje

The Congress party on Saturday announced that former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manvendra Singh will contest against Rajasthan Chief Minister (CM) Vasundhara Raje from Jhalrapatan in the upcoming Rajasthan assembly elections, which are scheduled for December 7.

Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "I am honoured that Rahul Gandhi Ji and Congress thought it useful for me to contest and I'm touched by responsibility shown towards me. I accept the responsibility and will run a fair campaign."

This comes after Raje filed her nomination for the elections in the morning at Jhalawar secretariat for Jhalrapatan constituency, from where she has been winning since 2003.

On Friday, the Congress party had announced the first list of 152 candidates in the 200-member assembly.

Recently, the BJP also released its second list of 31 candidates. So far, the BJP has announced the names of 162 candidates for upcoming assembly polls.

The counting of votes will begin on December 11, along with four other states-Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram.

The BJP under Vasundhara Raje's leadership had won 163 of the 200 assembly seats in the state in 2013.