Rajasthan elections: Congress fields Jaswant Singh's son Manvendra against CM Vasundhara Raje

The Congress today released its second list of candidates for the upcoming Rajasthan assembly election. Manvendra Singh, the son of former Union minister Jaswant Singh, will contest against CM Vasundhara Raje from Jhalrapatan.

Raje is a three-time MLA from Jhalrapatan. Until recently, Manvendra Singh was a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Manvendra Singh quit the BJP in September this year and joined the Congress. Singh said that he had joined the Congress because he was being targeted by the Raje-led BJP in Rajasthan.

Notably, Jaswant Singh, who was a Cabinet minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, was denied a BJP ticket during the 2014 Lok Sabha election,



which saw Narendra Modi become prime minister. Singh contested as an Independent.

Congress's second list today has a total of 32 candidates.

The party released its first list of 152 candidates for Rajasthan earlier this week, after much delay.

Both Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot were given tickets; both are seen to be strongest claimants for the chief minister's chair from within the Congress.

Rajasthan is going to the polls along with four other states -- Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Telangana.

Voting in Rajasthan will be held in a single phase on December 7. Results for all the five states will be out on December 11.