The list which has a fair representation to all factions led by Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kamal Nath and Singh, however, does not have many surprises.
Gearing up to give the toughest ever challenge to the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress on Saturday declared its first list consisting 155 nominees to take on CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his team.
The Congress waited for the BJP to issue its first list and then a day later came out with its own, with party leaders claiming they have fielded their best winnable candidates. Both the parties are yet to issue lists of candidates to fight the 230-seat Assembly.
Former Union minister Suresh Pachouri, who has never won an election, is again fielded from Bhojpur near Bhopal from where he had lost in 2013 to Surendra Patwa, Culture Minister in the Shivraj Singh Cabinet. It is understood that since Patwa is now a tainted minister with a huge bank loan controversy surrounding him, the Congress once again fielded their trusted leader. Like Pachouri, many more former MPs such as Sajjan Verma ( Sonkatch), Surendra Singh Thakur ( Sehore) and Digvijay Singh's younger brother Lakshman Singh have been fielded from Chachoda. The former CM's son Jaivardhan Singh, a sitting MLA, has also been repeated from Raghogarh from where Digvijay himself used to contest.
The list which has a fair representation to all factions led by Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kamal Nath and Singh, however, does not have many surprises.
MP Kantilal Bhuria's son Vikrant has been given ticket from Jhabua tribal (reserved) seat while NSUI state chief Vipin Wankhade has been fielded from Agar in Malwa region. A number of former ministers in Digvijay's cabinet (1993-2003) have also been picked up by the party, including, Vijay Laxmi Sadho ( Maheshwar), Mukesh Nayak ( Pawai), Dr Govind Singh, Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh (son of Arjun Singh), Arif Aqueel, Hukum Singh Karada, to name a few.
The list shows the party still trusts old faces, though about 20 per cent of list consists of new faces. 20 women have also received tickets.
CM Chouhan's brother-in-law joins Cong
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's brother-in-law Sanjay Singh Masani joined the Congress on Saturday, saying that the state needs party chief Kamal Nath and not Chouhan as the chief minister. Masani, brother of Chouhan's wife Sadhna Singh, joined the Congress in presence of MP Congress chief Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia in New Delhi.
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 "Sanjay Singh, Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia")
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