The Congress on Thursday suspended rebel Rajasthan leader Naresh Meena over a dispute about the party’s nominee for next week’s Deoli-Uniara Assembly by-poll. The party’s state in-charge, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, issued an order to that effect Thursday.
Naresh Meena wanted to contest the seat but the party opted to field Kastor Chand Meena.
A disgruntled Naresh Meena then announced he would stand as an independent candidate with support from the Bharat Adivasi Party, triggering talk of the community votes being split.
According to reports Naresh Meena has twice rebelled against the Congress, including once before last year’s Assembly election, when he contested the Chhabra seat as an independent. He got around 44,000 votes, while the Congress’ Karan Rathore lost to the BJP’s Pratap Singhvi by less than 7,000.
The Congress forgave Naresh Meena and re-inducted him before the Lok Sabha election, only for him to kick up a row for the Dausa seat he wanted. On this occasion he agreed to stand down.
The Deoli-Uniara by-poll was triggered after Harish Chandra Meena, who won the seat in the 2018 and 2023 Assembly elections, was elected to the Lok Sabha in the April-June general election.
Deoli-Uniara is within the Tonk Lok Sabha constituency, which Harish Meena won and in which senior Congress leader and ex Deputy Chief Minister, Sachin Pilot, is seen to have significant sway.
The Deoli-Uniara seat was formed for the 2008 Assembly election has been held mostly by the Congress since, with Ram Narayan Meena winning the first poll, followed by Rajendra Gujjar of the Bharatiya Janata Party five years later. In the 2018 and 2023 election Harish Meena won this seat.
In the 2023 election – in which the Congress was dumped out of power by the BJP – Harish Meena scored nearly 20,000 votes more than the saffron party’s Vijay Bainsla.
Seven Assembly seats in Rajasthan will hold by-polls next week.
These seven are Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Khinvsar, Chaurasi, Salumbar, and Ramgarh, apart from Deoli-Uniara. Voting will be on November 13 and the results will be announced November 23.
With input from PTI
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