Rajasthan polls: BJP’s first list of 131 names has 25 new faces, Raje in Jhalrapatan

The Bharatiya Janata Party late on Sunday named 131 candidates in its first list for the Rajasthan assembly election, again fielding Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje from Jhalrapatan, her usual seat. The names include 85 sitting MLAs and 25 new faces.

How the list was finalised

Senior leader JP Nadda read out the names after the party’s central election committee met, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, other top leaders and Raje. The list was reportedly delayed by differences between Shah and Raje. Nadda told reporters that candidates for all seats had been discussed and the remaining names would follow soon.

Sona Ram Choudhary, a Lok Sabha MP, has been named for an assembly seat, and the party has given tickets to 12 women.

Shah and Raje were said to have disagreed over how many sitting MLAs to drop, amid concern that anti-incumbency could hurt the party. There had been reports that more than half of the 163 sitting MLAs could be replaced, possibly including some cabinet ministers. At a state screening meeting on Saturday at the home of Prakash Javdekar, the Union minister who is in charge of the state election, Raje reportedly argued for dropping no more than 30 MLAs and proposed shifting about a dozen legislators facing adverse reports to other constituencies.

The party had run a six-day feedback exercise with workers last month before shortlisting names. Rajasthan votes on December 7, and the last date for nominations is November 19.

The challenge ahead

The BJP faces a revived Congress, which has won several by-elections in the past couple of years, and a number of opinion polls have given the opposition an edge. The BJP has said it will fend off the challenge. Under Raje the party won 163 of 200 seats in 2013, the Congress’s worst defeat, though for two decades the state has voted out the incumbent party at every election.

What happened next

The Congress won 99 of the 199 seats that voted on 7 December 2018, against 73 for the BJP, and Ashok Gehlot became Chief Minister.

Originally published on 14 November 2018. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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