Rajasthan BJP MLA resigns over poll ticket denial

A BJP MLA whose name was dropped from the first list of candidates for the Rajasthan Assembly elections resigned from the party on Tuesday, a day after the resignation of state minister Surendra Goyal.

Nagaur MLA Habibur Rahman said he has mailed his resignation to the party's state president Madan Lal Saini.

"I resigned from the party's primary membership and forwarded the resignation to the party' state president today (Tuesday). There is discontent among my supporters against the party's decision to drop my name this time, therefore I took this decision," Rahman told PTI.

He said he was in Delhi, where he will meet his supporters to decide the future course of action.

A few other sitting BJP MLAs, who also did not make it to the list, expressed dissatisfaction over the party's decision.

Ramganj Mandi MLA Chandrakanta Meghwal said she will contest the election as an independent candidate.

"My name was dropped and the party announced some other candidate from my constituency. I have no idea why the party did this to me. I will file nomination as independent candidate from my constituency," she said.

A two-time MLA Sanjana Agri also expressed surprise over being denied a ticket.

"I brought Scheduled Castes' votes to the party's fold in the last 15 years and won the last election with a margin of over 20,000 votes. The decision to drop my name is surprising for me and for the Meghwal community. The community has significant influence in my constituency, but the party gave the ticket to a candidate who has a votebank of just a few hundreds," she said.

The Sojat MLA said she will make all efforts to get a ticket by November 18 and will continue to work for the party even she is denied one.

"I would be serving my party, but the Meghwal community people are unhappy with the decision," she said.

Dungarpur MLA Devendra Katara said he will take a decision by evening, after discussing the matter with party workers.

The BJP released its first list of candidates for the December 7 assembly polls on Sunday night.

The party announced the names of 131 out of the total 200 candidates. It retained 85 sitting MLAs and dropped 26.

Goyal, a five-time BJP MLA, resigned as the state's public health engineering and ground water minister and from the party on Monday night as someone else was given the ticket from his constituency.