Jaipur: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress-led I.N.D.I.A bloc is expected to receive another blow as several party MLAs and public representatives, including two former ministers, are expected to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday, according to sources.
Over 30 senior Congress leaders and elected representatives of the Panchayati Raj department, including former ministers Lalchand Kataria and Rajendra Yadav, former MLA Richpal Singh Mirdha and his son Vijaypal Mirdha, ex-MLAs Alok Beniwal and Khiladi Lal Bairwa, MP Ram Pal Sharma, and former Congress Sevadal President Suresh Chaudhary, are expected to leave Congress and join the BJP tomorrow.
The formal joining of all the leaders is likely to take place at the state BJP headquarters in Jaipur, in the presence of senior BJP leaders from the Centre.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to win all 25 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, India TV-CNX Opinion Poll predicted earlier this week. Meanwhile, the Congress party is unlikely to win any seat this time as well, and NDA's ally Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) is expected to lose the Nagaur Lok Sabha constituency.
The BJP on March 2 released its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, including 15 nominees for Rajasthan which has 25 seats. As per the first list, five Lok Sabha members in Rajasthan have been denied tickets this time.
While Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will contest from Kota, the BJP has also given tickets to two leaders who joined the saffron camp from the Congress recently. Accordingly, Jyoti Mirdha has been given a ticket from Nagaur, while Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya will contest the polls from Dungarpur-Banswara.
Ram Swaroop Koli has been given a ticket in place of Ranjita Koli from Bharatpur (SC), Rahul Kaswan's ticket has been cancelled from Churu and given to Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia, Lumbaram Chaudhary has been made the candidate from Jalore-Sirohi in place of Devji Patel, while Mannalal Rawat has replaced Arjunlal Meena in the Udaipur (ST) reserve seat.
In 2014, the BJP had won all the 25 seats in Rajasthan. In 2019, the BJP had left the Nagaur seat for Hanuman Beniwal of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) as part of an alliance. While Beniwal won, the BJP swept the remaining 24 seats.
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