Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2018: Denied ticket, MLA Habib-ur-Rehman back home

BJP's sitting legislator from Nagaur constituency, Habib-ur-Rehman, joined the Congress in a formal ceremony at the Pradesh Congress Committee office in Jaipur on Wednesday. Rehman's name didn't feature among the first list of candidates declared by the party on Sunday.

The BJP fielded four candidates from the minority community in 2013. Public Works Department and Transport minister Yunus Khan and Habibur Rahman were given tickets along with Abdul Sageer and Salim Tanwar. Sageer and Tanwar lost the polls.

Since then, Yunus Khan was elevated to the rank of a cabinet minister. Along with Rehman, he served as a face of the minority community in the saffron party. Rehman who failed to make it to the first list chose to resign from BJP. It was since being speculated he would join the Congress.

On Wednesday, Ajmer MP Raghu Sharma and the campaign committee chairman presided over the formal induction of the Nagaur MLA into the party. Rehman has claimed that he joined congress without any conditions and will strive to ensure party's victory in the upcoming assembly election.