The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday released its fifth list of 15 candidates for the Rajasthan assembly elections, fielding the former MLA, Prahlad Gunjal and the president of the Rajasthan Berozgaar Ekikrit Mahasnagh, Upen Yadav.

The BJP has fielded Gunjal, a close to the former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, from the Kota North seat, currently held by the parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal.

The development came amid a time when Gunjal on Friday held a closed-door meeting with the Kota MP Om Birla, a bete-noire of Raje.

The BJP has denied tickets to a sitting MLA and the party’s two former state presidents.

The party fielded Yadav from the Shahpura seat, denying a ticket to the party’s two-time MLA Rao Rajendra Singh, who lost the 2018 poll to Alok Beniwal and fielded K G Paliwal, dropping Dharmnarayan Joshi, a sitting MLA from Mawli (Udaipur).

The BJP has also denied a ticket to its two former state presidents Arun Chaturvedi and Ashok Parnami in the current list. Among the new faces fielded by the BJP are journalist Gopal Sharma from Civil Lines ex-minister Chaturvedi and businessman Ravi Nayyar from Adarsh Nagar seat.

The party also switched two candidates announced earlier, thus taking the total number of candidates announced so far to 197.

In the third list announced on November 2, the BJP fielded Poonam Kanwar Bhati, the daughter-in-law of former minister Devi Singh Bhati, and Sarika Chaudhary from Baran-Atru seat. However, in the fresh list, Poonam was replaced by her son Anshuman Singh Bhati in the Kolayat seat and Chaudhary with Radheshyam Bairwa in the Baran-Atru seat.

Amit Chaudhary has been fielded from Hanumangarh, Chandramohan Batvada is from Kishanpole, Vijay Bansal from Bharatpur, former MLAs Rajkumar Rinwa from Sardarshahar, and Babu Singh Rathore from Shergarh.

The candidates for the Rajakhera, Masuda, and Pipalda seats, were also announced. The BJP is yet to declare candidates for the Barmer, Pachpadra, and Badi seats.

The voting on 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan will take place on November 25 and the last date for the nomination is Monday.