R'than polls: Cong fields 15 Muslim candidates, BJP 1

The Congress has given tickets to 15 Muslim candidates, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded only one candidate for the Rajasthan Assembly election.

The number of Muslim candidates from the Congress was similar to the last Assembly election, but all of them had faced defeat. Whereas, the BJP had given tickets to four Muslim candidates in 2013, two of them had won.

The saffron party's candidate, Yoonus Khan, who is the state transport minister, has been fielded from Tonk constituency, where state Congress president Sachin Pilot is contesting.

Khan, a sitting MLA from Deedwana constituency, was kept reserved by the party till the last moment. After the Congress fielded Pilot from the Muslim-dominated constituency, the BJP replaced sitting MLA Ajit Singh Mehta, who figured in an earlier list, and announced Khan's candidature on Monday.

The Congress, meanwhile, has reposed trust on eight Muslim candidates, who lost in the last Assembly election. It has fielded three women, among which Safia and Gulnaz are the wives of two Muslim candidates who contested the 2013 election.

The BJP, on the other hand, dropped sitting MLA Habibur Rahman, following which he quit the party and returned to the Congress after a decade, becoming its candidate from Nagaur seat.

Rahman was the Waqf minister during former chief minister Ashok Gehlot-led government, but joined the BJP in 2008 after he was denied ticket by the Congress.