Cong candidates land in Jaipur; Independents, former BSP men give them a wide berth!
Jaipur: Ahead of the last day of nominations for RS polls to be held on June 10, 3 candidates fielded by Congress party - Mukul Wasnik, Pramod Tiwari and Randeep Singh Surjewala - landed in Jaipur amid immense fanfare. They were received by PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasra, party leader Pushpendra Bharadwaj and others. They later made a courtesy call on the Speaker of Assembly CP Joshi at his residence. In the evening, they met CM Gehlot at CMR in presence of Dotasra. This was followed by another meeting of candidates with the legislators wherein 8 independent MLAs met with the candidates, while remaining 5 MLAs did not come. 1 of vocal leader and Advisor to CM Sanyam Lodha could also not come for meeting as he was in Sirohi.
Interestingly, 5 independent MLAs did not come for meeting at CMR on Monday and even the former “Elephant symbol” party MLAs also gave the meet a miss as 5 out of 6 MLAs were also absent.
Moreover, independent MLAs who came to CMR separately held a meeting with Gehlot and talked about their “trust” stressing that they were ready to prove it to Gehlot.
Meanwhile, candidates will file nominations at 11 AM on Tuesday and prior to this all the three candidates will go to the state Congress office where they will be accorded a welcome and honoured.
Post this, Gehlot will reach the Assembly accompanied by the candidates and Dotasra to take part in nomination process. On the other hand, Raghuvir Meena, who was also in race for RS, called on Congress matriarch Sonia Gandhi on Monday after which former Rajasthan incharge Avinash Pande also reached 10 Janpath. Raghuveer Meena told Sonia Gandhi that local leaders were disappointed by fielding outside leaders. Later Meena informed, in an informal conversation, that Sonia Gandhi assured him of adjusting him elsewhere.
