With every media poll survey predicting a clear Congress victory in the polls, there is strong likelihood of increase in Muslim representation in the state Assembly.
Caravan News
JAIPUR — The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan and the opposition Congress both have declared their final list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls to be held on December 7 in the state.
The Congress has given tickets to 15 Muslim candidates, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded only one candidate for the Assembly election.
The number of Muslim candidates from the Congress is similar to the last Assembly election, but all of them had faced defeat. Whereas, the BJP had given tickets to four Muslim candidates in 2013, two of them had won. However, the saffron party has fielded only one Muslim this time.
The lone Muslim candidate for the BJP is Yunus Khan, who is the state transport minister. His name has been declared strategically by the party to contest against sate Congress president Sachin Pilot from Tonk assembly seat which is a Muslim dominated constituency.
| Muslim Candidates of Congress, BJP in Rajasthan | |||
| Seat | Candidate | Party | |
| 1 | Churu | Rafiq Mandeliya | Congress |
| 2 | Fatehpur | Hakam Ali | Congress |
| 3 | Kishan Pole | Ameen Kagzi | Congress |
| 4 | Sawai Madhopur | Danish Abrar | Congress |
| 5 | Pushkar | Naseem Akhtar Insaaf | Congress |
| 6 | Nagaur | Habibur Rahman | Congress |
| 7 | Makrana | Zakir Hussain Gaisawat | Congress |
| 8 | Pokaran | Saleh Mohammed | Congress |
| 9 | Sheo | Ameen Khan | Congress |
| 10 | Adarsh Nagar | Rafeeq Khan | Congress |
| 11 | Ramgarh | Mrs. Safiya Zubair Khan | Congress |
| 12 | Kaman | Ms. Zahida Khan | Congress |
| 13 | Soorsagar | Prof. Ayub Khan | Congress |
| 14 | Ladpura | Ms. Gulnaz | Congress |
| 15 | Tijara | Aimamuddin Ahmed Khan | Congress |
| 16 | Tonk | Yunus Khan | BJP |
Mr Khan’s name, a sitting BJP MLA from Deedwana constituency, was kept reserved by the party till the last moment. Khan replaced sitting MLA Ajit Singh Mehta, who figured in an earlier list. The political atmosphere in Rajasthan seems to be not so favourable for the BJP in this election.
The Congress has reposed trust on eight Muslim candidates, who lost in the last Assembly election. It has fielded three women, two of them – Ms Safia and Ms Gulnaz are the wives of two Muslim candidates who contested the 2013 election, PTI reports.
The BJP, on the other hand, dropped sitting MLA Habibur Rahman, following which he quit the party and returned to the Congress after a decade, becoming its candidate from Nagaur seat.
He was the Waqf minister during former chief minister Ashok Gehlot-led government, but joined the BJP in 2008 after he was denied ticket by the Congress.