BHOPAL: Four days after he joined the Congress, Sanjay Singh Masani, the brother-in-law of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been named among the party candidates for the November 28 assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh.
Masani, who joined the Congress in state president Kamal Nath’s presence in New Delhi on Saturday, is among the 29 candidates named in the fourth list released on Wednesday evening.
He has been fielded by the party from Baraseoni assembly seat of Naxal affected Balaghat district from where he is said to have trying to get a BJP ticket since 2013.
ALSO READ: Babulal Gaur is BJP star campaigner for now
Singh, who has connections in the film industry and had essayed the role of Akshay Kumar’s brother-in-law’s in Bollywood flick Padman, had joined the Congress four days back, a development that came as a psychological setback to the ruling BJP, which is already embattled with 15 years of anti-incumbency and internal tussles over ticket distribution.
The Baraseoni seat is presently represented by RSS-backed BJP candidate Yogendra Nirmal.
The fourth list also includes names of candidates for three seats of Indore district, leaving just two seats Indore-2 and Indore-5 to be decided, after BJP declares its candidates for those seats.
Also, ex-MP minister Narendra Nahata has been declared party candidate from Mandsaur, the epicenter of 2016 farmers violence and resultant deaths of six famers in police firing.
The party has also changed the candidate from Burhanpur seat against state women and child development minister Archana Chitnis. Ravindra Mahajan has been fielded instead of Hamid Qazi, as the party apprehends that Qazi’s nomination could be rejected by EC for being convicted in a case.
Also, the party has changed the candidate from Sironj assembly seat of Vidisha district. Mashrat Saeed would be the party candidate in place of earlier declared Ashok Tyagi. The BJP has fielded Umakant Sharma – the brother of Vyapam scam charge-sheeted ex-minister Laxmikant Sharma from the same seat.
With the fourth list, the party has so far declared 214 seats for the 230 seats strong Vidhan Sabha polls.
The fourth list, however, didn’t include the Huzur, Seoni Malwa and Govindpura seats, from where BJP is still undecided about fielding two veterans ex-CM Babulal Gaur and Sartaj Singh and Gaur’s ex-Bhopal mayor daughter-in-law Krishna Gaur. The Congress is keenly eyeing developments in the BJP camp on these three seats.