The All India Congress Committee (AICC) declared its first list of 15 candidates on Friday for the upcoming by-elections for 27 seats in Madhya Pradesh (MP), which will be held along with Bihar assembly polls as was announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) recently.
Bihar is slated to go to polls in October-November.
The bypoll candidates’ list was released by AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, said Narendra Saluja, media coordinator, MP Congress.
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The bypoll candidates have been declared for most of the constituencies in MP’s Gwalior-Chambal region: Ravindra Singh Tomar for Dimni assembly constituency, Satyaprakash Sankhwar -- Ambah, a Scheduled Caste (SC)-reserved constituency; Mevaram Jatav --- Gohad (SC); Sunil Sharma (Gwalior); Suresh Raje -- Dabra (SC); Phul Singh Baraiya -- Bhander (SC); Pragilal Jatav-Karera (SC); Kanhaiyalal Agrawal (Bamori); Asha Dohre -- Ashok Nagar (SC); Vishwanath Singh Kunjam – Anuppur, a Scheduled Tribe (ST)-reserved constituency; Madanlal Choudhary-Ahirwar --- Sanchi (SC); Vipin Wankhede --- Agar (SC); Rajveer Singh Baghel (Hatpipalya); Ram Kishan Patel – Nepanagar (ST); and Premchand Guddu -- Sanwer (SC).
Of the 27 assembly seats, where the bypolls will be held, 16 fall under the Gwalior-Chambal region.
{{/usCountry}}Of the 27 assembly seats, where the bypolls will be held, 16 fall under the Gwalior-Chambal region.
{{/usCountry}}The Congress is yet to announce the candidates’ names in the remaining seven seats in the region and five seats in the other regions.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), too, had announced eight candidates’ names on August 27 for the seats in the Gwalior-Chambal region.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not announced its candidates’ names for the upcoming bypolls yet.
Of the Congress candidates, Guddu has been a member of Parliament (MP) from Ujjain and was also the lawmaker from Sanwer seat. He had left the Congress and joined the BJP in November 2018. He rejoined the Congress sometime ago . He is expected to take on state water resources minister Tulsi Silavat in the bypolls, who had represented the seat until March.
Agrawal, the candidate for the Bamori seat, has been a minister in the erstwhile BJP government between 2008 and 2013. He had also joined the Congress sometime ago. He is expected to take on state minister for rural development and panchayati raj Mahendra Singh Sisodia.
Baraiya has been state BSP president. He was also in the BJP before joining the Congress.
Tomar, the candidate for the Dimni seat, is likely to face BJP’s Girraj Dandodiya, minister of state for farmers’ welfare and agriculture development.
Sharma, the candidate for the Gwalior seat, is expected to lock horns with the BJP’s Pradyumn Singh Tomar, who is the energy minister in Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s cabinet.
Similarly, Raje for the Dabra seat is expected to challenge state minister for woman and child development minister Imrati Devi.
Kunjam, who has been nominated for the Anuppur seat, is expected to challenge minister for food and civil supply Bisahulal Singh.
Choudhary-Ahirwar is expected to face BJP’s Dr Prabhuram Chaudhary, who is the health minister in the Chouhan cabinet.
Saluja exuded optimism about the party’s bypoll prospects.
“The party has selected the best candidates for these constituencies. They are all going to win the upcoming by-elections,” Saluja said.
State BJP vice-president Vijesh Lunawat said, “Rumblings have already started within the Congress after the names of some of the bypoll candidates were declared. However, the selection of the candidates is the Congress’s internal matter. The BJP has been confident of its victory in the bypolls right from the outset.”