With a month left for Assembly elections, the Congress on Sunday released the first list of party candidates for the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana assembly elections. While Madhya Pradesh chief minister hopeful Kamal Nath will contest from the Chhindwara assembly constituency, Chattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel will be in the fray from his Patan assembly constituency.
The list includes candidates for 144 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 30 for Chhattisgarh and 55 for Telangana.
In Madhya Pradesh, former chief minister Digvijaya Singh's son Jaivardhan Singh has been fielded from the Raghigath seat. He was a minister in the last Kamal Nath government. Other prominent names include former Minister of Higher Education of Madhya Pradesh Jitu Patwari and sitting MLAs Vijayalakshmi Sadho and Lakshman Singh.
The Congress had won the last elections but the Kamal Nath government collapsed in March 2021 when 22 sitting Congress MLAs resigned under the leadership of Jyotiraditya Scindia and joined the BJP. The party is hopeful of returning to power in the state and has ramped up campaigning in the state with Rahul Gandhi and his sister and the party's national general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, already holding a clutch of rallies.
On Saturday, the party targetted Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, alleging that the state's youth have been "ruined" by the 18-year rule of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. Congress leader Shobha Oza claimed there are more than two crore youths in Madhya Pradesh and they are suffering due to lack of employment. "Today the youths of Madhya Pradesh are completely ruined. It is said that the basis of progress of any nation is its youth and only youth power which determines the present and future of the country and the future of such youth power has been ruined by 18 years of governance of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Madhya Pradesh," the former Mahila Congress chief said.
Chhattisgarh
In Chhattisgarh, Deputy Chief Minister T S Singh Deo will contest from the Ambikapur assembly seat. The party has fielded Girish Devangan in Rajnandgaon, where he will contest BJP leader and former state chief minister Raman Singh.
The party has also fielded Vikram Mandavi from Bijapur, Lakheshwar Baghel from Bastar, Deepak Baiji from Chitrakot and K Chavindra Karma Dantewada. Congress leader Taradhwaj Sahu will contest the polls from Durg (Rural), Ravindra Choubey from Nawagarh and Yashoda Verma from Khairagarh.
The Congress won 68 of Chhattisgarh’s 90 assembly seats in 2018, forming a government in the state for the first time since its (the state’s) creation in 2000. It is hoping to retain power on the back of its outreach to backward classes and its welfare measures.