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Madhya Pradesh elections: Vajpayee nephew, minister in BJP’s second list of 17
For the Madhya Pradesh elections, BJP MP from Morena and nephew of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Anoop Mishra was given a ticket from Bhitarwar, Gwalior district.
The BJP announced its second list of 17 candidates, retaining seven, including minister Sharad Jain, and dropping five of its MLAs.
MLAs Pandit Singh Dhurwey from Bichhiya, Chandrashekhar Desmukh from Multai, Veer Singh Panwar from Kurwai, Jaswant Singh Hada from Shujalpur and Mukesh Pandya from Badnagar have been denied tickets.
The BJP had announced its first list of 177 candidates on Friday, but later made a correction, reducing the number by one.
The Congress too has declared two lists, one on Saturday with 155 names and the second on Sunday with 16 names.
BJP MP from Morena and nephew of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Anoop Mishra was given a ticket from Bhitarwar, Gwalior district, while minister of state for public relations Sharad Jain was retained from his Jabalpur (north) seat.
With the new list, only 37 seats remain to be announced and many of them are from the Malwa region, which is considered to be a stronghold of the BJP.
BJP spokesperson Deepak Vijayvargiya said the tickets were denied to the five sitting MLAs on the basis of various independent surveys that were carried out and feedback of the party workers.
The Congress did not find the list exciting. “The dropping of 20% of the sitting candidates from the two lists shows that the BJP is facing a huge anti-incumbency and are staring at defeat,” said state Congress media cell head, Shobha Oza.
