The Congress on Sunday urged the Election Commission to disqualify the BJP candidate from the Karanpur constituency, Surendra Pal Singh, claiming his appointment as Rajasthan minister ahead of voting on January 5 is a violation of the model of conduct.

A party delegation submitted a memorandum in this regard to the Chief Electoral Officer of the state.

It said that the appointment of a candidate as a minister "is a disregard for the basic principles". The Election Commission is duty-bound to conduct free and fair elections. Such an appointment will influence the voters and is a grave impropriety, the memorandum said.

The Congress delegation included Raghu Sharma, Sanyam Lodha, Ram Singh Kaswan, Jaswant Gurjar and Kuldeep Poonia and Pradeep Agarwal.

Voting will be held on Karanpur seat on January 5. The election in this assembly constituency was put off due to the death of Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Koonar.

Apart from Surendra Pal Singh, 21 BJP MLAs were sworn in as ministers by Governor Kalraj Mishra at a ceremony in the Raj Bhawan here. While 12 leaders have been sworn in as cabinet ministers, five have been made ministers of state (independent charge) and five ministers of state.

Singh took oath as Minister of State (independent charge).

BJP leader Rajendra Rathore defended his party's decision and said that the oath taken by Singh as Minister of State is in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

He said, "Under the provisions contained in Article 164 (4) of the Constitution, any person has the right to hold the post of minister for six months without being elected. "According to this constitutional provision, the oath of office of minister can be administered to any person by...the governor on the advice of the chief minister. After that, it is necessary for him to be elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly within six months." "The oath...is not a violation of any kind of model code of conduct. Dozens of ministers have contested elections while holding ministerial posts in the previous government also," he said.

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