Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2018: Leader of Opposition Rameshwar Dudi stakes claim on Nokha seat

At a time when the screening committee headed by Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja and Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) are busy finalizing candidates for Rajasthan assembly elections, Leader of the Opposition Rameshwar Dudi has openly staked his claim on the Nokha seat in Bikaner. Dudi argued he won the election even during the Modi wave in 2013 and hence he should be given the ticket.

“I have requested the party to give me a ticket from Nokha constituency only. The reason is I had won the election from Nokha in 2013 when Modi was riding the crest of popularity. People of the constituency have given me lot of affection and hence I asked the party high command to field me from here,” Dudi told scribes at Bikaner on Thursday. 

Congress performed badly in 2013 and was decimated to just 21 seats only, its worst tally ever. Big guns in 133-year-old party, who lost election with huge margin, openly gave credit to Modi who was star campaigner and ‘to be’ declared PM candidate by the saffron party at that time.

Those 21 MLAs who won the election at that time are now staking claim on seats again arguing how they defeated Modi wave in their areas. The screening committee is vetting the candidates and is considering to field some of the sitting legislators again. Talking to the scribes Dudi said the screening committee has completed several rounds of meetings on the candidatures and the CEC has been consulted too. “Soon the list of candidates will be released by the party,” he said.