Indicating its preparedness and confidence despite losing prominent leaders to defection, the Madhya Pradesh Congress on Friday announced candidates for 15 out of 27 seats in the state where by-polls are slated, even before the dates of elections are declared. Normally major parties announce candidates only close to the date of nomination filing, mainly to avoid internal conflict and to keep the opponent party guessing.
Though the names of the BJP candidates are almost fixed and tickets in 22-25 seats are expected to go to former Congress MLAs who resigned and joined the saffron fold, the ruling party is yet to make it official.
So, the Congress that faced questions on availability of candidates, seems to have made an attempt to pip the BJP in this regard. The announcement comes at a time when Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia and Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar are on a four-day election campaign in the Gwalior-Chambal region, planning to cover 13 out of 16 constituencies in the region up for by-polls.
Among the 15 candidates announced on Friday, nine are for the seats in Gwalior-Chambal region. Seven candidates have been announced for such seats where they are likely to face ministers in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet.
Prominent candidates
Prominent among the declared candidates are ex-member of parliament Premchand Guddu who came back to the Congress fold recently after joining BJP ahead of 2018 Assembly polls from Sanver where he is likely to take on state water resources minister Tulsiram Silawat and ex-BJP minister Kanhaiyalal Agrawal who might be pitted against labour minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia in Bamori. Prominent Bahujan leader Phool Singh Baraiya is the candidate from Bhander (against Jyotiraditya Scindia loyalist Raksha Saronia), MP National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) president Vipin Wankhede is candidate from Agar (where BJP candidate remains undecided following death of its MLA Manohar Untwal) and Gwalior Congress district president Sunil Sharma has been given ticket from Gwalior, where he is likely to take upon energy minister Pradyumna Singh Tomar.
Ex-BJP, BSP leaders get lucky
Another notable feature in this first list is that at least seven candidates are those who have been earlier with the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). This has given the BJP a chance to take a jibe at the Congress.
They include ex-BSP leaders Pragilal Jatav (Karera – likely against Jaswant Jatav), Mevaram Jatav (Gohad – likely against Ranvir Jatav) and Satyaprakash Sikarwar (Ambah – likely against Kamlesh Jatav) apart from Baraiya, Guddu, Agrawal and ex-BJP leader Suresh Raje from Dabra.
BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal, while reacting to the names in the list, said that the party welcomes the list as “it has increased the chances of BJP's win by two to four times”. Also, he said, the list makes it clear that there is no ground to the ‘bikau-tikau’ (saleable-durable) campaign theme of the Congress as at least half dozen candidates are those who have not been stable in politics let alone in any party.
Agrawal also said that the fact that the Congress had to hold back announcing the names of probable candidates like ex-deputy leader of opposition Choudhary Rakesh Singh (who returned to Congress after being in BJP for few years) from Mehgaon in Bhind and Satish Singh Sikarwar of Gwalior East (who recently joined Congress leaving the BJP), indicates that a major infighting is still on within the Congress. Even for the announced names, he said that several prominent aspirants have been left upset.
However, Congress’ ex-leader of opposition Ajay Singh said that all the 15 names are those who are sure to win. The candidates have been selected on the basis of three rounds of internal survey, sources said.
Interesting candidates
Some of the candidates announced by the Congress are quite interesting. Asha Dohre, who got into news after an alleged audio clip of her mother-in-law Anita Jain accusing Jyotiraditya Scindia of failing to secure a seat for Asha despite paying Rs 50 lakh for the purpose went viral, has been given a ticket from Ashok Nagar. Jain had spoken about the same seat in the alleged audio clip.
Suresh Raje, who was earlier with the BJP and even contested the 2013 Assembly elections on BJP ticket, has been given ticket from Dabra. He is likely to fight against prominent Scindia loyalist minister Imarti Devi, who interestingly is also Raje’s relative through marriage of their respective children.
Other candidates
The other candidates announced are former zilla panchayat member Madanlal Choudhary from Sanchi (likely to fight against health minister Prabhuram Choudhary); Ravindra Singh Tomar, a party candidate from 2013 Assembly polls, from Dimni (likely against minister of state Girraj Dandotia); former zilla panchayat member Vishwanath Singh Kunjam from Anuppur (likely against civil supplies minister Bisahulal Singh); Rajvir Singh Baghel (son of ex-MLA Rajendra Singh Baghel) from Hatpipalya (likely against ex-MLA Manoj Choudhary) and Ramsingh Patel from Nepanagar (likely against ex-MLA Sumitra Kasdekar who resigned from Congress last month).
