LS polls: Nomination of 20 seats in R'sthan to begin Mar 19

Exercise will continue till March 26, scrutiny of papers will take place on March 27, and withdrawal of nomination would be allowed by March 29

Filing of nomination papers for 20 parliamentary constituencies of Rajasthan which go to poll on April 17 will begin tomorrow.

The process of filing nomination papers for the first phase of elections will start tomorrow in 20 Lok Sabha seats: Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur-rural, Jaipur, Ajmer, Nagaur, Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer, Jalore, Udaipur, Banswara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran.

The exercise will continue till March 26. The scrutiny of papers will take place on March 27, and withdrawal of nomination would be allowed by March 29.

The second phase of LS polls in Alwar, Bharatpur Karauli- Dholpur, Dausa, and Tonk-Sawaimadhopur will be held on April 24 for which the election notification would be issued on March 29.

In the present Lok Sabha, out of 25 seats in Rajasthan the Congress has got 20 MPs, BJP: 4, and one Independent.

Congress highcommand has fielded so far 8 candidates; four sitting MPs: Jitendra Singh from Alwar, Ijey Singh from Kota, Dr Girija Vyas from Chittorgarh, and Raghuveer Meena from Udaipur. Four others Contestants are: Raj Bala from Jhunjhunu, Shankar Punnu from Bikaner, Harish Choudhary from Barmer, and P S Jat from Sikar.

BJP has not yet announced any list of candidates in Rajasthan though Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has been camping in Delhi to finalise the candidates' name, the party sources said.

The new debutant AAP has also fielded eight candidates including Dr Virendra Singh, former superintendent of SMS hospital and renowned Asthma specialist, from Jaipur LS seat.