BJP releases 177 names in first list for polls, drops 3 ministers, 36 MLAs

BHOPAL : The Central Election Committee (CEC) of BJP on Friday released its first list of 177 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections fielding chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from his home constituency, Budhni in Sehore district and 25 ministers of the present BJP cabinet from their traditional bastion, announced CEC secretary, J P Nadda in a press release, on Friday.
The party dropped names of 36 sitting MLAs in the first list with the biggest change in Gwalior East assembly constituency where cabinet minister Maya Singh was replaced by Satish Sikarwar, elder brother of MLA Satyapal Singh Sikarwar from Sumawali. Similarly, the party has fielded Mudit Shejwar son of cabinet minister Gauri Shankar Shejwar from Sanchi assembly seat. The BJP also replaced minister of state Harsh Singh with son Vikram Singh in Rampur-Baghelan assembly constituency.
Among the 177 names announced out of the total of 230 assembly segments, 16 are women candidates while, two Lok Sabha members, Manohar Utwal from Dewas-Shajapur and Nagendra Singh from Khajuraho, will also contest from Agar (SC) and Nagod assembly seats, respectively. The party also repeated 22 MLAs who lost the election during 2013 assembly polls.
“The CEC has released the names after due consideration and through a transparent process. The BJP would surely win the election with a target of 200 plus seats”, said BJP media convener and Rajya Sabha member, Prabhat Jha.
In the list, ministers Narottam Mishra, Gopal Bhargava, Lal Singh Arya, Bhupendra Singh, Rustam Singh, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Jaibhan Singh Pavaiyya, Jayant Malaiya, Archana ChitnisOmprakash Dhurve, Gaurishankar Bisenand Rampal Singh have been fielded from their traditional seats. However, the party changed the seat of minister Lalita Yadav from Chhatarpur to Bada Malhera.
Sources said that due to intense lobbying and more than two claimants for the ticket, the remaining 53 seats will be declared in a day or two after discussions with the party chief Amit Shah and central election committee members. As per the party leaders, the present list sans name of candidates from Indore district, Govindpura and Bhopal North seats of Bhopal.
Among senior leaders who were dropped from the list included former home minister Kailash Chawla from Manasa (Neemuch), sitting MLAs including Parul Sahu from Surkhi (Sagar), K K Shrivastava from Tikamgarh, Pannalal Shakya from Guna (SC), Anita Nayak from Prithvipur, R D Prajapati from Chandla, Rekha Yadav from Chhatarpur, Mahendra Singh from Gunnaor, Neelam Mishra from Semariya, Ramakant Dwivedi from Teonthar, Jaisingh Maravi from Jaitpur and Sampatiya Uike from Mandla seat.
The party also fielded Umakant Sharma, brother of Vyapam accused and former minister Laxmikant Sharma from Sironj (Vidisha) and Narendra Singh Tomar, director of Narmada Hydro-electric Development Centre from Mandhata seat in Khandwa district to replace the sitting MLA Lokendra Singh. Tomar had lost this seat to Congress in 2003 election.
The party also gave ticket to former ministers including Kamal Patel from Harda, Karan Singh Verma from Ichchawar, Brajesh Pratap Singh from Pawai and former MLA Atmaram Patel from Kasrawad.