Raj polls: BJP announces first list of 131 candidates

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Speaker Kailash Meghwal, state ministers and senior party leaders have been included in the BJP's first list of 131 out of the total 200 candidates for the December 7 Assembly polls.

The list was announced Sunday night.

The party has retained 85 sitting MLAs and dropped 26 MLAs, including two ministers and one of two Muslim MLAs, while there is no change in the constituencies of 85 MLAs who have been retained.

Ministers Rajendra Rathore, Gulab Chand Kataria, Vasudev Devnani, Srichand Kriplani, Kiran Maheshwari Anita Bhadel, Ajay Singh, Krishnendra Kaur, Gajendra Singh and Prabhu Lal Saini have made it to the list.

The saffron party has also given tickets to family members of a few sitting MLAs and other leaders.

These include Poonam Kanwar, daughter-in-law of former BJP MLA Devi Singh Bhati (Kolayat seat); Atul Bhansali, relative of Jodhpur MLA Kailash Bhansali (Jodhpur seat); Hemant Meena, son of Tribal Affairs Minister Nandlal Meena (Pratapgarh seat); Ramswaroop Jat, son of former MP Sanwar Lal Jat who died last year (Nasirabad seat); Sailesh Singh, son of former BJP minister Digambar Singh who died last year, among others.

Some of the candidates like Shambhu Singh Khetasar(Sardarpura), Sumit Godara (Lunkaransar), Satish Poonia (Amber), Jaswant Gurjar (Bari), Babu Lal Kharadi (Jhadol) and Khemraj Garasia (Bagidora) had lost the 2013 assembly elections.

The BJP has two sitting Muslim MLAs Habibur Rahman (Nagaur) and Transport Minister Yoonus Khan (Deedwana). The party has dropped Rahman and the candidate for the Deedwana seat has not been announced yet.

Water Resources Minister Surendra Goyal and Tribal Affairs Minister Nandlal Meena could not make it to the list. However, the party has fielded Meena's son from his constituency.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also retained Deputy Speaker Rao Rajendra Singh and chief whip Kalu Lal Gurjar in the first list.

Jaisalmer-Barmer MP Sona Ram was also given ticket from Barmer.