Deviating from its stand against dynastic politics, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has issued tickets to contest the December 7 assembly election in Rajasthan.
Party leaders said the deviation was necessitated to avoid revolt within the party.
The party was taking each step in ticket distribution cautiously to avoid revolt within the party, which otherwise could play spoilsport and affect its prospects in the crucial election.
In the BJP's first list of 131 candidates released on Sunday night, the party has given tickets to its 85 sitting MLAs and has taken care of the family members of prominent leaders who were denied ticket.
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The first list comprises sons, grandsons and daughters-in-law of several prominent leaders of the BJP.
The saffron party has given due attention to family members of leaders who died owing to health issues.
The BJP has given a ticket to Ram Swaroop Lamba, the son of late MP Sanwar Lal Jat, to contest election from Nasirabad seat and to Shailesh Singh, the son of late former state minister Digamber Singh, from Deeg-Kumher seat.
The party has once again reposed faith in Lamba, who was fielded to contest the Lok Sabha bypoll from Ajmer seat earlier this year. He had lost the election to Congress's Raghu Sharma by 80,000 votes.
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From Kolayat Assembly seat in Bikaner district, the party has given ticket to senior leader Devi Singh Bhati's daughter-in-law Poonam Kanwar. It has fielded Rishi Bansal's wife Ritu from Bayana seat in Bharatpur district.
The other names include former minister Nandlal Meena's son Hemant Meena from Pratapgarh, former legislator Gurjant Singh's grandson Gurveer Singh Brar, former legislator Kailash Bhansali's nephew Atul Bhansali from Jodhpur and former legislator Kunjilal's son Rajendra Meena from Bamanwas.
The leaders say that the step has been taken to avoid revolt as well as to avert results similar to the 2008 assembly election when the BJP had to lose power due to loss of more than 15 seats. The party could secure 78 seats and the Congress too could not touch the magic figure to form the government.
If the party had not suffered a jolt due to revolt against the Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, the BJP could have formed the government taking along Independent candidates, they said. The Congress won 96 seats in the 2008 assembly election. The BSP won six seats and Independents 14 in the 2008 election.
The Congress is likely to unseat the BJP from power in Rajasthan, two opinion polls have predicted in what could be a continuation of the state's tradition of over two decades of voting out the ruling party.
In the meanwhile, in two opinion polls carried out by ABP News-CVoter and C fore have predicted the Congress almost 50 per cent of the vote share and 142 and 124-138 seats respectively in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, with its state president Sachin Pilot leading Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje as the most preferred candidate for the top post.
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Polling in Rajasthan and Telangana will be held on December 7. Counting of votes will be taken up in all the five states on December 11.
(With inputs from PTI)
