Bhopal: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has recently announced its fifth list of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. This latest list includes 92 candidates who have been granted tickets to contest in the elections. It's worth noting that Guna and Vidisha seats have been retained by the party.
The decision to finalize these candidates was made during a meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee held in New Delhi on October 20. The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who arrived in Delhi on the evening of October 20. He later departed for Bhopal late at night. Accompanying him were Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, State President VD Sharma, and Organization Minister Hitanand Sharma. This move followed the release of the Congress party's list of candidates, which prompted the BJP to reconsider some of its own selections.
Prior to this announcement, the BJP had already released four lists, which included 136 candidates. Current Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been nominated to contest from the Budhni constituency. In the first and second lists, 39 candidates each were announced, with one candidate added in the third list. It's noteworthy that the BJP has also given opportunities to supporters of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, with Imarti Devi, Tulsiram Silavat, Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon, Pradyuman Singh Tomar, Govind Singh Rajput, Dr. Prabhuram Chaudhary, and Hardeep Singh Dang receiving party tickets.
The high-profile contests in this election include TV actor Vikram Mastal contesting from Congress against Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and BJP district president Bunty Sahu facing former Chief Minister Kamal Nath from Chhindwara. Home Minister Narottam Mishra has been nominated from the Datia assembly seat, and he will be competing against Rajendra Bharti.
In Indore Number-1, Congress has once again expressed confidence in the current MLA Sanjay Shukla, who is facing BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. Former Congress MLA Hemant Katare is competing against Minister Arvind Bhadauria from the Ater Assembly, while Ambrish Sharma is contesting from the Lahar assembly constituency against Leader of Opposition Dr. Govind Singh.
In another contest, BJP's Mohan Singh Rathod is trying his luck against former Congress minister Lakhan Singh, and Congress has declared Lakhan Singh Patel as its candidate against Union Minister Prahlad Patel. Former leader of the opposition Ajay Singh has received a Congress ticket from Churhat and will be facing BJP MLA Shartendu Tiwari.
In Jabalpur West, senior BJP MP Rakesh Singh is competing against former Madhya Pradesh minister Tarun Bhanot. Lastly, BJP has fielded MP Ganesh Singh from the Satna assembly seat, with Congress putting forward its MLA Siddharth Kushwaha to challenge him.
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