After changing Jaipur nominee, Congress to announce new candidate for Rajsamand LS seat

The move comes after Sudarshan Singh Rawat refused to contest polls saying a young leader should be fielded

Congress leader Sudarshan Singh Rawat speaks to the media as he refuses to contest the election from the Rajsamand constituency, in Jaipur on March 28. | Photo Credit: ANI

After changing its nominee for the Jaipur City Lok Sabha seat, the Congress is set to announce a new candidate in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand constituency following Sudarshan Singh Rawat’s refusal to contest the Lok Sabha election. Rajsamand will go to polls on April 26, the second phase of the Lok Sabha election.

The Congress announced Mr. Rawat’s candidature on March 25. However, the former MLA from Bhim, who is 51, said a young leader should get the opportunity.

Jaipur candidate Sunil Sharma was dropped on March 24 after it emerged that he was allegedly associated with a right-wing forum. Congress has now fielded former minister Pratap Singh Khachariya in his place.

Mr. Rawat has sent a letter to Pradesh Congress Committee president Govind Singh Dotasra saying he had expressed his inability to contest the polls several times in the past month. He said the Congress lost the 2023 State Assembly election despite the welfare schemes it had introduced since its victory in 2018.

“Following the defeat in the last Assembly elections, I neither have the moral nor logical right to contest the Lok Sabha elections, nor did I have any strategic preparation for it. I am also scheduled to go abroad for the next two months for business purposes. Therefore, a young and interested person should be made a candidate,” Mr. Rawat said in his letter.

Mr. Rawat lost the Bhim seat in Rajsamand district to the BJP’s Hari Singh Chauhan last year. He said his name was proposed by a top Congress leader from Mewar region despite him being on a foreign tour and repeatedly refusing to contest. Without naming the leader who had recommended his candidature, Mr. Rawat said the leader’s action was inappropriate, adding that Mewar’s political scenario had changed.

“On the evening of March 25, I received the news of my candidature through social media. I was surprised. I again request the top leadership of the Congress to give a chance to some capable and interested candidate in my place,” Mr. Rawat said.

The BJP has fielded Mahima Vishweshwar Singh, a member of the erstwhile royal family of Udaipur and wife of Nathdwara MLA Vishvaraj Singh Mewar, from Rajsamand.