Amid the discontent over the lists of 156 candidates announced by the ruling Congress for Rajasthan Assembly election so far, Baseri MLA Khiladi Lal Bairwa on Wednesday resigned as chairperson of the State Scheduled Castes Commission. A total of seven sitting MLAs were dropped in the two lists released on Tuesday.
Mr. Bairwa, considered a loyalist of former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, was replaced with Sanjay Kumar Jatav in the constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes in Dholpur district. Mr. Jatav, an engineer by profession, had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the Karuli-Dholpur seat.
Mr. Bairwa, a former Congress MP, has sent in his resignation letter to party president Mallikarjun Kharge, while pointing out that the State government had failed to give a statutory status to the SC commission, making its functioning ineffective and giving rise to dissatisfaction among the Dalit communities.
The MLA said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot should give a guarantee for providing more “more teeth” to the commission, in addition to the seven guarantees which had recently been announced. “The denial of ticket could be a result of speaking the truth. I was among the people who were loyal to the party and did not resign as MLA during the Congress Legislature Party [CLP] issue last year,” Mr. Bairwa said.
Some other MLAs have raised a question over the role of observers appointed by Congress for the Assembly election. Bharat Singh Kundanpur, dropped at Kota district’s Sangod seat, questioned how AICC secretary and co-incharge for Rajasthan Qazi Nizamuddin could select and field Bhanu Pratap Singh from the seat, as the new candidate was not even a resident and a voter in the Sangod constituency.
However, Mr. Kundanpur, 73, had earlier announced that he would not contest the election in view of his advanced age. He was promoting two local leaders, Kushal Pal Panahera and Pooja Singh Kamolar, as potential candidates, as they had raised the public issues in the constituency while serving as Block Congress presidents.
Other MLAs who have been denied the tickets are Bharosilal Jatav (Hindaun), Johari Lal Meena (Rajgarh-Laxmangarh), Babulal Bairwa (Rajgarh), Heera Ram Meghwal (Bilara) and Sandeep Yadav (Tijara). Rajkumar Gaur, Independent MLA from Sriganganagar, who extended support to Congress, has also been dropped.
Mr. Meena staged a dharna outside the residence of senior Congress leader Jitendra Singh in Alwar, claiming that he had been denied the ticket despite being on top in an internal survey conducted by the party recently. A large number of party workers and supporters of MLAs also staged protests and raised slogans in Jaipur, Churu, Bikaner and Sriganganagar.
