Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls: BJP releases first list of 177 candidates, drops bigwigs

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday released a list of its 177 candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections that is slated to be held on November 28.

According to the list, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will be contesting from his old bastion Budhni constituency in Sehore district, which he has been representing since the year 2005.

The first list released by BJP dropped as many as 63 sitting MLAs with the biggest surprise came in Gwalior East assembly constituency where cabinet minister Maya Singh was replaced by Satish Sikarwar. Minister Harsh Singh was also replaced by Vikram Singh in Rampur-Baghelan seat.

The new list seems to be a major setback for all the 63 sitting MLAs, as their names have been replaced with new names,  including Forest Minister Gaurishankar Shejwar — who has been replaced by his son Mudit in Sanchi constituency.

Apart from Maya Singh and Harsh Singh, the party has denied tickets to former home minister Kailash Chawla from Manasa, sitting MLAs including Parul Sahu from Surkhi (Sagar), KK Shrivastava from Tikamgarh, Pannalal Shakya from Guna (SC), Anita Nayak from Prithvipur, Mahendra Singh from Gunnaor, Neelam Mishra from Semariya, Ramakant Dwivedi from Teonthar, Jaisingh Maravi from Jaitpur and Sampatiya Uike from Mandla seat.

However, BJP has not announced any candidate from Indore and crucial seats like Govindpura in Bhopal where several candidates have expressed their desire to contest.

Along with Chouhan, top leaders like Narottam Mishra, Yashodhara Raje Scindia and others are also on the first list of candidates. While Scindia will contest from Shivpuri, Mishra was given ticket from Datia.

The names of the candidates were finalised in a meeting of BJP’s Central Election Committee, which was attended by BJP chief Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Notably, BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2008 and is making all efforts to retain power in the state this time too, in spite of anti-incumbency and the opposition’s scathing attacks over multiple issues.

Besides Madhya Pradesh, the party has also released a list of candidates for the state elections in Mizoram and Telangana.

In Madhya Pradesh, there are 230 constituencies where elections will be held. The result of elections in five states will be declared together on December 11.

Also read: Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls: BJP likely to hire magicians to woo voters