Bhopal: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced candidates for 39 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, almost three months before the state elections due in November, a move political experts said was unusually early for the party.
The names comprise 38 seats that the Congress won and one won by the BSP in 2018 assembly polls, and the contenders were picked by the BJP Central Election Committee, which met on Wednesday. The CEC meeting was chaired by party president JP Nadda and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.
HT reported on Wednesday that the party has decided to keep special focus on seats in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh that it lost to Congress in 2018. “In every election, constituencies are categorised from A to D based on how well the party has performed there in the previous elections. Strongholds are identified as category A and those where the performance is dismal are called D seats. The efforts now will be to not only consolidate party’s position in the A and B category seats, but also make a bid to transform C and D category seats,” a party functionary had said on Wednesday.
Among the candidates for 39 seats are those held senior Congress leaders such as former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria, Vijay Laxmi Sadho, Sachin Yadav, Arif Aqueel, NP Prajapati, Jitu Patwari, Surendra Singh Baghel, KP Singh and Lakshman Singh, the brother of Digvijaya Singh.
{{/usCountry}}Among the candidates for 39 seats are those held senior Congress leaders such as former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria, Vijay Laxmi Sadho, Sachin Yadav, Arif Aqueel, NP Prajapati, Jitu Patwari, Surendra Singh Baghel, KP Singh and Lakshman Singh, the brother of Digvijaya Singh.
{{/usCountry}}Of these 39 seats, the BJP had won 29 in 2013, when assembly elections were held in November amid a wave of support for then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who stormed to a thumping majority in the general elections just months later.
Barring Bhopal north where BJP won only in 1977 and 1993, all other seats are not a strong hold of any political party, party functionaries said. “We see a chance in these 39 seats and therefore, the party has announced the candidates much in advance,” said a senior BJP leader, who asked not to be named.
Bhopal north, a Muslim-dominated constituency, was the only seat in 2013 and 2018 from where BJP gave ticket to Muslim candidates but they lost to five-time Congress MLA Arif Aqueel. This time, the BJP has given the ticket to former Bhopal mayor Alok Sharma.
Some of the candidates who lost in 2018 have been given tickets. It includes BJP scheduled caste wing national president Lal Singh Arya, who has been given ticket from Gohad assembly seat, and former higher education junior minister Lalita Singh, who lost in 2018 from Chhatarpur seat, Om Prakash Dhurve from Shahpura and Aindal Singh Kansana from Sumawli. The 14 new faces introduced include IRS officer’s wife Priyanka Meena from Chachoura, Rajkumar Karraye, who resigned from AAP on Thursday morning, from Lanji, Balaghat and young leader Heera Singh Shyam from Pushprajgarh, respectively.
Of the 39 seats, 21 are for the candidates from the reserved categories -- eight from scheduled caste and 13 from scheduled tribes. The prominent candidates from SC seats as Lal Singh Arya, Anchal Sonkar from Jabalpur and Rajkumar Mev from Maheshwar and from ST seats are Om Prakash Dhurve from Shahpura, Nirmala Bhuria from Petlawad and Banu Bhuria from Jhabua.
MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan congratulated the candidates for getting the ticket. “Fulfil the trust that the party has reposed on all of you and emerge victorious, best wishes,” said Chouhan.
BJP state president VD Sharma termed the decision of announcing candidates earlier as a “new revolution in politics.” “We are working in a discipline party where voters are on the top. We heard the voice of voters and gave ticket to the most popular choice. Now, the work will start on the ground to register a thumping win in the assembly election,” he said.
Senior Congress leader Kantilal Bhuria said, “BJP is fearing of big loss as many candidates were in touch with the Congress party high command. They were ready to leave BJP to join Congress so under their pressure, they announced the candidates. It is not going to affect the election result.”