JAIPUR : The ruling BJP late Sunday night declared names of 131 candidates for the December 7 Rajasthan assembly elections. The party retained 85 MLAs and added 25 new faces. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will contest from Jhalrapatan, which she has represented since 2003.The list was announced after a BJP parliamentary Board meeting in Delhi, which was presided over by PM Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah , and attended senior Rajasthan party leaders, including Raje. The list shows that Raje had a major say in the selection of candidates.All the 85 MLAs, who figured in the list, will contest from their existing seats.The list, which included 12 women, 32 youth leaders, 17 SC and 19 ST candidates. The list didn’t include a single minority candidate. The MLA from Nagaur Habibur Rehman was replaced by a Jat candidate.Most of the senior ministers in the Raje cabinet, including Rajendra Rathore, Gulab Chand Kataria, Dr Rampratap, Arun Chaturvedi, Pushpendra Singh, Gajendra Singh, Kiran Maheshwari, Prabhu Lal Saini, Amra Ram, Vasundev Devnani, Anita Bhadel, Otaram Devasi and Bansidhar, made it to the list. The list also included names of Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Kailash Meghwal, Deputy Speaker Rao Rajendra Singh and MLA and former state BJP president Ashok Parnami.Senior leader who didn’t make it to the list was public health engineering minister and legislator from Jaitaram in Pali Surendra Goyal. The wait for tickets got longer for cabinet ministers — Kalicharan Saraf and Yunus Khan — as the party didn’t announce candidates for their constituencies.Col Sona Ram, Barmer MP, was given ticket from the Barmer assembly constituency, while Ramswaroop Lamba, son of former Union minister Sanwar Lal Jat, who had been defeated in the recent Ajmer Lok Sabha bypoll, would contest from Nasirabad.First list in contradiction to speculationsJaipur: The new faces included Rajya Sabha MP Kirorilal Meena’s wife Golma Devi, former MLA Digambar Singh’s son Shailesh Singh, former MLA Devi Singh Bhati’s daughter-inlaw Poonam Kanwar, MLA Kunjilal Meena’s son and former MLA Dharampal’s son Rajendra Meena.The list is in contradiction to the wide-spread speculations that the party, which is facing a strong antiincumbency across the state, would replace several MLAs, including several ministers.

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