Defying speculations that the Congress's first list of candidates for poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh might be announced in the first fortnight of September, the party seems to have held back the action at least till the special session of the parliament is over. The special session is scheduled from September 18-22.
Following intense sessions of discussions in Bhopal for four days with different levels of office bearers; the meeting of the screening committee for Madhya Pradesh, headed by Jitendra Singh, was held on Tuesday and Wednesday in New Delhi. There were speculations that the first list might be declared after the meeting.
Similarly, there were strong speculations that the first list of Chhattisgarh Congress could come by September 8 and latest by September 12. But, despite a series of meetings at the CM House in Raipur, in the presence of senior leaders, no such announcements came.
Sources said that the party had deferred the announcement keeping in view various points – one of them being the upcoming special session of parliament. Though the published agenda of the special parliament session does not mention it, the opposition feels that the NDA government might bring in some surprise last-minute agenda including the 'One nation; one election' issue during the session. If any such thing is done and a decision is taken, then the assembly elections might be deferred or Lok Sabha elections could be preponed – something that will have an impact on candidates' selection process.
Apart from this, there are also speculations that the Congress seems to be wary about announcing the candidates too much in advance as they might become a target of the central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department. Congress senior leader Digvijaya Singh expressed such apprehensions recently in Bhopal saying that the BJP was planning to open offices of central agencies in every city to target the opposition.
In Chhattisgarh, Congress leaders are already among those facing raids of ED and IT for the past several months. There are also the usual apprehensions about dissent and jumping ship by the rejected aspirants once tickets are announced.
Before attending the screening committee meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, state Congress chief Kamal Nath had made it clear that the party was in no hurry to announce the candidates list and will do so at 'appropriate time'. He has repeatedly said that the sure candidates had been already given indication to start preparations. A party senior in Bhopal told THE WEEK that the candidates list is not expected soon as multiple rounds of discussions are still pending.
MP's first list may have over 100 candidates
In Madhya Pradesh, there are speculations that candidates for over 100 seats out of the total 230 – including about 50 present MLAs whose survey reports are fine and about 50 seats repeatedly lost by the Congress in Madhya Pradesh could be declared in the first list. There have been rumours that despite MP Congress chief Kamal Nath preparing a list of probable candidates for several seats based on repeated surveys conducted by him, some other senior leaders have presented their own preferential candidates for certain seats.
In Chhattisgarh, there have been differences in the names proposed by the state unit and those coming out of surveys and confidential reports from the ground, therefore, a decision has been taken to prepare new panels of names. Two meetings were held in Raipur in the presence of state in-charge Kumari Selja, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and state party chief Deepak Baij apart from other senior leaders during the past week.
Chairman of the screening committee Ajay Maken is said to have insisted that only those candidates whose names come out in the confidential reports and ground surveys will be considered. Chhattisgarh's first list might have 25-30 candidates, sources said. There are also indications that overall, at least 40 new faces will be in the fray in the state which has 90 seats. 22 who lost in 2018 polls and about 18 current MLAs including two ministers are out of consideration.
BJP central election panel mulls on second list
Meanwhile, the BJP, which has already sprung a surprise by announcing first list of 39 and 21 candidates in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh respectively in August third week, well ahead of the possible poll dates, is said to be ready to announce its second list in both the states.
The meetings of the central election committee of the party for Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh were held on Tuesday and Wednesday nights respectively and a consensus was built on the names in the second list.
In Madhya Pradesh, the party might announce 35-40 names in the second list shortly. Among the names will include a candidate for Chhindwara seat where Kamal Nath is likely to contest. This second list will also be for seats among those 103 where the BJP had lost in 2018, similar to the earlier list of 39 candidates. During the central committee meeting, panels for about 50 seats prepared in a prior meeting organised by party president J.P. Nadda, were discussed, sources said.
For Chhattisgarh, candidates for about 12-15 seats are likely to be announced very soon, sources said. There were speculations that the list might come soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Chhattisgarh visit on September 14.
These seats will also be those where the BJP lost assembly polls once, twice or three times. The party has identified 52 such seats in the state and among them, the list for 21 seats has already been announced.