LS polls: Olympians, monks, royals in fray in Rajasthan

An interesting mix of candidates, including Olympians, monks, members of erstwhile royal families and sons of former and present chief ministers, is in the fray for the Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan, which goes to polls in two phases on April 29 and May 6.

Some of them are pitted against each other.

Jaipur rural seat will witness a straight contest between former Olympians Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, the BJP's sitting MP, and Krishna Poonia of the Congress.

Rathore, also the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, won a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics in shooting. Poonia, a discus thrower, has participated thrice in the international sporting event.

According to political commentators, caste matrix plays an important role in elections in Rajasthan.

Rathore and Poonia hail from Rajput and Jat communities, respectively, both of which have a sizeable population in the constituency.

Two monks, Sumedhanand Saraswati and Baba Balaknath, will be trying their luck from Sikar and Alwar constituencies respectively.

Saraswati is a sitting BJP MP and will take on the Congress's Subhash Meharia -- both from the Jat community.

Balaknath, who is making his electoral debut, is pitted against the Congress's Bhanwar Jitendra Singh, the scion of Alwar's erstwhile royal family.

Balaknath's guru Mahant Chand Nath had defeated Singh in the 2014 general election.

The second royal in the fray is the BJP's Rajsamand candidate, Diya Kumari. The saffron party chose the former MLA from Sawai Madhopur over its sitting MP Hariom Singh Rathore. She will lock horns with the Congress's Devkinandan Gurjar.

The polls this year will also see Vaibhav Gehlot, the son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, make his electoral debut from Jodhpur.

Gehlot Senior has represented the constituency five times since 1980.

Dushyant Singh, son of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, has been re-nominated by the BJP from Jhalawar.

The Congress has fielded BJP-turncoat Pramod Sharma against the four-time Jhalawar MP.

Son of BJP stalwart Jaswant Singh and former party MP Manvendra Singh is another turncoat in the running. He joined the Congress in October last year and is contesting from Barmer seat.

The Bikaner constituency will see a fight between two cousins -- BJP candidate and Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and the Congress's Madan Gopal Meghwal.

While the Congress candidate is a debutant, Arjun Ram Meghwal has been re-nominated from the seat, which has been a BJP stronghold for the last 15 years.