JAIPUR: BJP on Wednesday declared its second list of 31 candidates, dropping 16 MLAs including three ministers - Baboo Lal Verma, Raj Kumar Rinwa and Dhan Singh Rawat.Rinwa, who was facing stiff resistance in his constituency Ratangarh in Churu, was replaced by former BSP member Abhinesh Mehrshi.The ruling party that was vocal about not changing existing seats of its MLAs made an exception to accommodate Chandrakanta Meghwal, who was dropped and replaced by former minister Mandan Dilawar in the first list.Meghwal replaced Baboo LalVerma,whowasknown to be close to Vasundhara Raje, at Keshoraipatan seat in Bundi district.Eight MLAs including Meghwal were repeated in the second list.Junior minister Dhan Singh Rawat and former minister Jeetmal Khant, both from Banswara district, were replaced by Akhad Mahira and Kailash Meena, respectively. Recently, Rawat was booked under the Representation of the People Act for allegedly promoting enmity between two groups in his speech at an election rally in October. Khant, who was dropped as a minister in 2016, was accused of thrashing a toll booth worker in May 2018, a video of which had gone viral.Kalicharan Saraf and Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, two of the three senior ministers whose names were missing in the first list of 131 candidates, were given their existing seats, Malviya Nagar and Jhotwara, respectively.But suspense continues over the candidature of cabinet minister Yunus Khan from Deedwana.The other ministers who are still waiting are Surendra Pal, Jaswant Singh and Hem Singh Bhadana.Controversial MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja, who represented Ramgarh in Alwar, has been dropped and replaced by Sukhwant Singh. Khuman Singh has been cleared to contest from Barmer’s Sheo, which was held by Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh, who had recently joined Congress.While the first list, announced on Sunday, had the stamp of dynasty politics with family members of BJP leaders getting to contest from 13 seats, the second one included at least three names, including former Congress and BSP leaders, who had recently joined the party.Of them, Gurdeep Singh Shahpini, who would be contesting from Sangaria in Hanumangarh, had joined BJP a day earlier.The list includes four women, taking their number to 16. While Congress is yet to announce its first list, BJP has taken a lead by declaring candidates for 162 constituencies out of the 200 in the state. The names were announced after the state committee’s meeting with party president Amit Shah on Wednesday.

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