Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections 2023: BJP Releases Second List Of 39 Candidates

MP Elections 2023: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday released its second list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh.

The ruling party in the state has so far declared candidates for 78 seats for polls to the 230-member House, including its first list of 39 names that was released in August.

Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh are likely to be held at the end of the year.

The BJP has fielded union ministers Faggan Singh Kulaste from Niwas (ST), Prahlad Singh Patel from Narsinghpur, whose brother Jalam Singh Patel is the incumbent MLA and Narendra Singh Tomar from Dimni.

The BJP has also fielded four Lok Sabha MPs, namely Rakesh Singh from Jabalpur (West), Riti Pathak from Sidhi, Ganesh Singh from Satna and Udaypratap Singh from Gadarwara.

Pathak has been named in place of MLA Kedarnath Shukla, whose alleged supporter was named in the Sidhi case in which a tribal was urinated upon, the incident causing outrage across the nation, news agency PTI reported.

BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya will contest from Indore-1 Assembly seat.

Other candidates in the BJP's list include Durgalal Vijay (Sheopur), Raghuraj Kansana (Morena), Amrish Sharma (Lahar), Mohan Singh Rathore (Bhitarwar), Imarti Devi (Dabra), Pradeep Agrawal (Sewda) and Ramesh Khatik (Karera).

The list includes names of Hirendra Singh (Raghogarh), Brijbihari Pateria (Deori), Arvind Pateria (Rajnagar), Shrikant Chaturvedi (Maihar), Vishwamitra Pathak (Sihawal), Dilip Jaiswal Kotma and Pankaj Tekam (Dindori).

Gaurav Pardhi will contest from Katangi, Natthan Shah from Junnardev, Vivek Banti Sahu from Chhindwara, Jyoti Deharia from Parasia, Gangabai Uikey from Ghoradongri, Narendra Shivaji Patel from Udaipura, Hajarilal Dangi from Khilchipur, and Madhu Gehlot from Agar.

Arun Bhimawat will fight from Shajapur, Nanda Brahmane from Bhikangaon, Antar Singh Patel from Rajpur, Shyam Barde from Pansemal, Kalsingh Bhanwar from Thandla, Sardar Singh Medha from Gandhwani, Manoj Patel from Depalpur, Tejbahadur Singh from Nagda-Khachrod and Sangeeta Charel from Sailana, as per the BJP.

The list includes candidates for four Scheduled Caste (SC) and 10 Scheduled Tribe (ST) reserved seats.

Reacting to BJP's second list of 39 candidates, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath has claimed the ruling party has accepted defeat in MP and played its 'last bet of false hope'.

In a post on X late Monday night, Nath claimed the BJP has accepted defeat in MP and played its 'last bet of false hope'.

“The candidates' list of the BJP, which claims to have crores of party workers, is surely a stamp on the party's internal defeat and refutes the claims of development during the eighteen-and-a-half years of BJP government and more than 15 years of Shivraj's (Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) rule,” Nath said.

(With PTI inputs)