Upset over having denied a ticket in the upcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan, state water resources minister Surendra Goyal quit the BJP on Monday.
According to media reports, Goyal, a five-term MLA from Jaitaran, submitted his resignation in a two-line letter after his name did not figure in the list of 131 candidates announced by the party on Sunday night. In his letter to state party chief Madan Lal Saini, Goyal did not give any reasons for his decision to quit the party.
Goyal, who was replaced by Avinash Gehlot in the constituency, is likely to contest as an independent.
The party has retained 85 sitting MLAs and dropped 26 MLAs, including two ministers, and one of two Muslim MLAs, while there is no change in the constituencies of 85 MLAs who have been retained. The other minister who was dropped was Tribal Affairs Minister Nandlal Meena.
The BJP has two sitting Muslim MLAs Habibur Rahman (Nagaur) and Transport Minister Yoonus Khan (Deedwana). The party has dropped Rahman and the candidate for the Deedwana seat has not been announced yet.
The saffron party has also given tickets to family members of a few sitting MLAs and other leaders.
These include Poonam Kanwar, daughter-in-law of former BJP MLA Devi Singh Bhati (Kolayat seat); Atul Bhansali, relative of Jodhpur MLA Kailash Bhansali (Jodhpur seat); Hemant Meena, son of Tribal Affairs Minister Nandlal Meena (Pratapgarh seat); Ramswaroop Jat, son of former MP Sanwar Lal Jat who died last year (Nasirabad seat); Sailesh Singh, son of former BJP minister Digambar Singh who died last year, among others.
Some of the candidates like Shambhu Singh Khetasar (Sardarpura), Sumit Godara (Lunkaransar), Satish Poonia (Amber), Jaswant Gurjar (Bari), Babu Lal Kharadi (Jhadol) and Khemraj Garasia (Bagidora) had lost the 2013 assembly elections.
(With PTI inputs)
