Habibur Rahaman, the BJP MLA from Nagaur district in Rajasthan, quit the party for not getting a ticket to contest the Assembly Elections due on December 7. It was the second jolt in Rajasthan for the ruling party at the Centre as cabinet minister Surendra Goyal quit party on Monday for the same reason. Both leaders were denied tickets when a list of 131 candidates was released on Sunday.
Sitting MLA Rahaman got a raw deal from the saffron party when he found his constituency Nagaur was given to Mohan Ram Choudhary. Rahaman was only one of the two sitting MLAs in Rajasthan Assembly.
“I resigned from the BJP yesterday. Now this must be the policy of the party to not give tickets to Muslim candidates…What can we say about it? I didn’t do anything wrong to not get a ticket… I will decide my further course of action after a meeting with workers today,” Rahaman was quoted as saying by The Indian Express on Tuesday.
However, another Muslim candidate Yoonus Khan, known to be a close associate of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, also didn’t find his name on the list of 131 candidates that was released on Sunday. It’s not clear whether he has been denied ticket or has been held back. He contests from Didwana constituency in Nagaur district.
As for Rahaman, the five-time MLA switched allegiance to the saffron party from Congress before the Assembly Elections 2008 and registered victory though his party lost power in the state. Thereafter, he subsequently retained his seat and also got elected in 2013 on a BJP ticket.
However, Rahaman didn’t reveal his future course of action after quitting party but rumour mills are abuzz that he may contest the election on either a Congress ticket or Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, a party formed by independent MLA Hanuman Beniwal.
On Monday, Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) minister Goyal also put in his papers after he was replaced in Jaitaran constituency in Pali district with Avinash Gehlot.
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