The Congress has dropped senior Rajasthan Minister Mahesh Joshi, considered a loyalist of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, in its sixth list of 23 candidates for the Assembly election released late on Saturday night. Mr. Joshi was among those accused of indiscipline with the boycott of a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting convened for selecting a new Chief Minister in Jaipur in September 2022.
The party has fielded its Jaipur city unit president R.R. Tiwari from Hawa Mahal constituency in the Walled City after denying the ticket to Mr. Joshi at the seat, which he had won in 2018. Mr. Joshi was earlier elected to the Lok Sabha from Jaipur in 2009. He was the Congress Chief Whip in the Assembly before his appointment as the Cabinet Minister holding the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) portfolio.
Mr. Tiwari filed his nomination papers on Saturday even before the list of candidates was officially announced, claiming that he had been given the go-ahead by the party’s leadership. Mr. Tiwari said he would inaugurate his campaign office on Monday with a function at which Mr. Joshi would also be present.
