Rajasthan: Congress announces candidates for bypolls

Jaipur: The Rajasthan Congress on Sunday announced its candidates for Mandawa and Khinwsar assembly bypolls slated for October 21.

Rita Chaudhary and Harendra Mirdha will contest assembly bypolls as Congress's candidates from Mandawa and Khinwsar seats, respectively, state Congress vice president Archana Sharma said.

Meanwhile, the opposition party BJP also announced Sunita Seegda as it's candidate for Mandawa seat.

Earlier, the BJP had announced that it will contest bypolls for the Khinwsar seat in alliance with the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP).

RLP convener and MP Hanuman Beniwal's brother Narayan Beniwal has already been announced as the the RLP-BJP candidate for the Khinwsar seat.

The bypolls are being conducted as Khinwsar MLA Hanuman Beniwal and Mandava MLA Narendra Kumar were elected to Lok Sabha in May this year.

Of 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan, the Congress has 106 MLAs, including the six who defected to the party from the BSP recently.

The BJP has 72 MLAs; CPI (M), Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) and the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) have two legislators each while the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), an ally of the Congress, has one MLA.

Thirteen legislators are Independent.