Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): The picture regarding the contenders for Ujjain Municipal Corporation (UMC) ward elections has become clear now. There are seven former corporators or their close relatives who are fighting the election as Independent candidates. How much it will harm their parties will be known when the results are out. After the withdrawal, both the parties managed to get most of their rebels to withdraw their candidature barring in seven wards where the former corporators or their wives or daughters are still in the fray. Of these, three are from the BJP and four are from the Congress party.
Former corporators Bhagwansinh Gownd himself, RadheshyamVerma’s wife and wife of Arun Deshpande belong to the BJP
Likewise, former Congress corporator Bhagwan Khandegar himself, Salim Kabadi’s wife Bano Bi, Shobha Shrivastava herself and Atmaram Malviya’s daughter-in-law Poojaare in the fray from their respective wards as Independent candidates.
Bhagwan Khandegar is in the fray from ward 8 (SC open). He will be contesting against Rakesh Hirve of his own party and Gajendra Hirve of BJP. Ex-coporator Salim Kabadi's wife is contesting from ward 14 (woman open) against the party’s official candidate Shaheen Mujeeb Supari, Bhagwansinh Gownd is contesting from ward 33 (ST open). He will face Congress candidate Bunty Gownd and BJP’s ex-corporator Leelabai Verma. In ward 40 (SC woman), former Congress corporator Atmaram Malviya’s daughter-in-law Pooja contesting as an Independent. Here she can create trouble for Monika Mahesh Parmar of the Congress.
In ward 42 (OBC woman), Gokul, wife of former corporator Radheshyam Verma, can become a problem for BJP candidate Anjali Patel. Similarly, in ward 50 (woman open), former corporatorArun Deshpande's wife Amrita can cut the votes of BJP candidate Namita VikasMalviya. Shobha Srivastava, who was a corporator from Congress in ward 52 (woman open), is now in the fray as an Independent candidate. She can create trouble for Sulekha, who is the wife of the outgoing leader of the opposition Rajendra Vashistha.
