Rajasthan BJP MLA and the son of former Union Minister Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh joined the Congress party on Wednesday ahead of assembly elections in the state. Singh met with Congress President Rahul Gandhi before joining the party.

Delhi: Manvendra Singh leaves from the residence of Congress President Rahul Gandhi pic.twitter.com/eRoxeugf3R — ANI (@ANI) October 17, 2018

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Manvendra Singh joined Congress in the presence of party leaders including Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot, Avinash Pande and Randeep Surjewala. The party announced the move at a press conference.

"I met Rahul Gandhi in the morning today and he welcomed me into the Party. I have confidence that my supporters will continue to support me," said Manvendra Singh.

Delhi: Manvendra Singh joins Congress party, says, "I met Rahul Gandhi in the morning today and he welcomed me into the Party. I have confidence that my supporters will continue to support me." pic.twitter.com/D7rrgXbAM3 — ANI (@ANI) October 17, 2018

Congress leaders believe his joining the party will help bring in Rajput votes in the assembly polls.

Reacting to Manvendra Singh's decision to join Congress, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said, "It's Manvendra Singh's decision. His father Jaswant Singh spent his entire life fighting with Congress. BJP gave him respect as Finance and Defence Min. It's the same Congress party that didn't appoint any Rajput from Rajasthan as minister in Centre in 70 years."

Rajasthan is scheduled to go to the polls in a single phase on December 7. The counting of votes for all 200 constituencies will take place on December 11. The election in the state of Rajasthan will take place in single phase. The counting of votes will commence from 11th December 2018.

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Recently, in a major setback to Congress, the Supreme Court dismissed Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot's petitions seeking a direction to the Election Commission with respect to the upcoming Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan State assembly elections. The top court while siding with the Election Commission on handling the elections, said there are no loopholes in the EC mechanism.

Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot had sought random verification of VVPAT machines and the voters’ lists in the text format ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in MP and Rajasthan.

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