Jaipur, November 17: In a major challenge to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, the Congress on Saturday announced Manvendra Singh, the son of of former Union Minister and ex-BJP veteran Jaswant Singh, as the candidate against her from Jhalrapatan constituency. The seat has been represented by Raje for the last 15 years.

Manvendra, who is currently the MLA from Shiv constituency in Barmer district, resigned from the BJP in September after his differences deepened with the party's leadership.

On his departure from the saffron camp, Manvendra said he had been mulling the decision for the last 5 years -- ever since his father was sidelined by the party.

Notably, Jaswant Singh, who served as a Union Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, was denied a Lok Sabha ticket from Barmer in 2014 by the BJP. Months after the general polls, he suffered a stroke which left him speech and hearing-impaired.

Manvendra's name featured in the second list of 32 candidates announced by the Congress. Check constituency-wise details other nominees below:

The list comes a couple of days after the party announced 152 names in its first list for Rajasthan, which included former CM Ashok Gehlot and Congress' Rajasthan unit chief Sachin Pilot.

Single-phased polls across the 200 constituencies of Rajasthan is scheduled on December 7. The results would be declared by the Election Commission on December 11. All pre-poll surveys have given Congress the edge moving into the polls, while indicating a massive anti-incumbency wave against the Raje-led BJP regime in the state.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 17, 2018 03:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).