It's Rajyawardhan Rathore vs Krishna Punia in Jaipur Rural

It's going to be a sporty fight for the Jaipur Rural seat in the Lok Sabha elections as Congress has fielded Commonwealth gold medallist Krishna Punia against shooter and Olympics medalist Colonel Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore, the Minister of State for I&B and Sports.

Discus thrower Punia is the incumbent MLA from Sadulpur Constituency. Rathore represented the Jaipur Rural seat in the outgoing House.

Punia, who won a gold at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, has participated in three olympics and is also a receipient of the Padma Shri.

Rathore, who won a silver winner at the 2004 Athens Olympics, won golds at the Commonwealth Games at Manchester (2002) and Melbourne (2006). Between 2002 and 2006, he won 25 international medals at various championships.

The Congress on Monday night fielded six new candidates in Rajasthan. It had released 19 names earlier and its list of 25 candidates is now complete.

The other candidates fielded on Monday include Pramod Sharma (Jhalawar-Baran), Bharatram Meghwal (Shri Ganganagar), Devkinandan Gurjar (Rajsamand), Riju Jhunhunwala (Ajmer) and Rampal Sharma (Bhilwara).

However, BJP is yet to declare candidates for six seats. Barmer and Rajsamand await their candidates for the first phase of elections on April 29. The other seats which are yet get their candidates for the second phase of elections on May 6 are Alwar, Karauli, Dausa and Nagaur.

The filing of nominations starts from Tuesday.

--IANS

arc/vm