153 candidates remain in fray for 1st phase of polls

JAIPUR: The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday rejected the nomination of terminated IPS officer Pankaj Choudhary, who had filed his papers from Barmer

Lok Sabha

seat on a BSP ticket. It also rejected nominations of 18 other candidates, leaving the total number of valid candidates at 153 and nominations at 233 for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state for 13 constituencies, scheduled to be held on April 29.


On Tuesday, a total of 172 candidates had filed 260 nominations, with the highest number of candidates from Jalore (28).

Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), which stitched an alliance with the BJP, was allotted the ‘tyre’ symbol by the ECI for the Lok Sabha elections. Beniwal will contest from Nagaur. During assembly polls, his symbol was ‘bottle’.

Meanwhile, BJP had raised objections to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot's nomination in Jodhpur. But the District Election Officer rejected their claim.

Banswara had seen lowest number of candidates filing their nominations (5). Among the prominent leaders Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot filed his nomination from Jodhpur and Congress candidate from Ajmer Riju Jhunjhunwala also filed his nomination.

The district election department has been receiving weird excuses from the government employees to exempt them from election duty.

One employee from the education department Ramesh Sharma urged the DEO to exempt him from poll duty as he has to feed his birds in his village. It has received around 4,500 applications. DEO Jagroop Yadav directed that the matter must be looked into and, if need be, he must be asked to retire from the services with immediate effect. Others excuses include death of mother-in-law, aged parents, some say their child is autistic and some say they are not mentally fit. “We have allowed genuine cases and exempted them,” said Yadav.

Meanwhile, the BJP has given a written complaint to the CEO Rajasthan against Sangod SDM in Kota (Kamal Yadav) for not allowing the political parties to put up a party flag at their residences. “The rule is any person can put up a flag of a political party of their choice at their residences. For that, he doesn’t need a permission. But the SDM is forcefully pulling down the flags,” said BJP leader Nahar Singh, who filed the complaint.