Rajasthan Minister Surendra Goyal quits BJP after party denies ticket

Nov 12 (AZINS) Rajasthan Minister Surendra Goyal on Monday resigned from Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) after he was denied ticket to contest state assembly elections.

Goyal submitted his resignation in a two-line letter to state BJP president Madan Lal Saini.

In the first list of candidates released by the BJP, Water Resources Minister Surendra Goyal was replaced by Avinash Gehlot for Jaitaran seat in Pali district.

Tribal Affairs Minister Nandlal Meena also could not make it to the list. However, the party has fielded Meena's son from his constituency.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Speaker Kailash Meghwal, state ministers and senior party leaders have been included in the BJP's first list of 131 out of the total 200 candidates for the December 7 Assembly polls.

The party has retained 85 sitting MLAs and dropped 26 MLAs, including two ministers and one of two Muslim MLAs, while there is no change in the constituencies of 85 MLAs who have been retained.

Ministers Rajendra Rathore, Gulab Chand Kataria, Vasudev Devnani, Srichand Kriplani, Kiran Maheshwari Anita Bhadel, Ajay Singh, Krishnendra Kaur, Gajendra Singh and Prabhu Lal Saini have made it to the list.