Madhya Pradesh elections: Congress releases first list of 155, drops 3 sitting MLAs and names four ‘outsiders’

Of its 57 MLAs in the Assembly, 46 have figured in the first list. Names of candidates for the remaining 75 seats, including eight represented by the Congress, will be announced later.

National convener of JAYS, Dr Hiralal Alawa, will contest from Manawar on a Congress symbol. He had until recently maintained that JAYS will enter into alliance only if it got Kukshi and a few more seats. Accusing him of a sellout and using the tribal movement for personal gains, many members of JAYS have threatened to teach Alawa a lesson. He could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Sitting MLA Sanjay Sharma and former MLA Padma Shukla, who recently defected from the BJP, will contest from Tendukheda and Vijayraghogarh seats, respectively. Shukla will take on MSME minister Sanjay Pathak, who defected to the BJP from Congress two years ago. The two had contested against each other in 2013 on the opposite symbols.

Jaivardhan Singh, son of senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, and Laxman Singh, younger brother of the former chief minister, have been fielded from Raghogarh and Chachoura seats, respectively. Laxman Singh switched political allegiance and joined the BJP after the 2003 elections. He returned to the Congress in 2013.

Former mayor Renu Shah, who recently defected from the BSP, will contest from Singrauli. Former BJP MLA Abhay Mishra, who joined the Congress in March this year, will contest from the same constituency, Rewa, that he represented in Vidhan Sabha earlier.

Former Union minister and former state Congress chief Suresh Pachouri will contest from Bhojpur. Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh will contest from party stronghold Churhat. Jitu Patwari, one of the four working presidents of the Congress, who was caught on camera telling a potential voter “party gayi tel lene”, will contest from Rau.

Former BSP MLA Vidyavati Patel, another candidate who joined the Congress recently, and NSUI chief Vipin Wankhede and Youth Congress chief Kunal Chaudhary have also got tickets. Patel will contest from Deotalab, and Wankhede and Chaudhary will contest from Agar and Kalapipal seats, respectively.

The party has fielded two Muslim candidates. While Arif Aqueel, the only Muslim MLA in MP, will contest from Bhopal (north), the constituency he has represented five times, former NCP MLA Hamid Kazi will contest from Burhanpur.

Sitting MLA Shakuntala Khatik, who had purportedly asked supporters to set a police station ablaze following a heated argument with some policemen, is among the three MLAs who have been denied ticket this time.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had earlier asserted that candidates who will parachute in before elections will not be fielded at any cost. Recently, he had nuanced his position to say that a few exceptions could be made if the candidates were good.

The Congress first list names 22 women candidates; the BJP first list of 177 has 16 women.