Gehlot, Pilot fielded in Cong's 1st list of 33 candidates for Raj

The Congress on Saturday announced the names of 33 candidates for the Rajasthan elections, fielding chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot for the high stakes contest.

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In its first list for the November 25 elections, the state's ruling party declared the candidature of 28 sitting MLAs, including five ministers, as it looked to buck the trend of Rajasthan never re-electing a government since 1998, alternating between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Gehlot will contest the upcoming elections from the Sardarpura constituency of Jodhpur, the seat he has represented in the state assembly since 1999. The 72-year-old is banking on a slew of welfare schemes and the 11th-hour announcement of a caste survey similar to the enumeration carried out in Bihar a move aimed at attracting other backward class (OBC) votes- to return at the helm of the state. Rajasthan has seen 11 assembly elections in the last five decades, with the incumbent government managing to win just twice, in 1985 and 1993; both times, it was the Congress. Pilot, 46, will enter the electoral arena from the Tonk assembly constituency, the seat he won in 2018.