BHOPAL: The Congress declared its second list of 12 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in the state on Thursday. The list included names of Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath from his father’s pocket-borough Chhindwara, Rajya Sabha member and legal eagle Vivek Tanka from Jabalpur, former MP minister and leader of opposition in last Vidhan Sabha Ajay Singh ‘Rahul’ from Sidhi seat and former union minister and ex-MP Congress chief Arun Yadav from Khandwa seat.
The list also included the names of Padma Shri awardee and Kabir Bhajan singer Prahlad Tipaniya from the Dewas-SC seat and Khargone-based radiologist Dr Govind Muzaalda (considered to be close to Home Minister Bala Bachchan) from Khargone-ST seat.
The list further includes many leaders who had lost the Vidhan Sabha elections in the past and are eyeing the Lok Sabha polls as a lifeline to bounce back into mainstream politics, including Ajay Singh ‘Rahul’ (the son of ex-MP CM Arjun Singh) from Sidhi seat, ex-MP minister Prabhu Singh Thakur from Sagar seat, ex-MLA Pratap Singh Lodhi (Damoh seat), ex-MP minister Babulal Malviya (Ujjain-SC) and three-time assembly and LS polls loser Rajaram Tripathi (Satna).
Turncoat tribal leader Kamal Maravi, who lost as Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) candidate from Bichiya assembly seat in 2013 and joined Congress two years back, has been fielded against Faggan Singh Kulaste, known for the 2008 cash-for-votes scam as well as a five-time sitting BJP MP and ex-union minister from Mandla-ST Lok Sabha seat.
With this, the Congress has so far declared 21 candidates for the 29 seats of MP and candidates now remain to be declared from Dhar, Indore, Rajgarh, Guna, Gwalior, Bhind-SC, Morena and Vidisha seats.
Among those who have been declared candidates, despite losing Vidhan Sabha polls in the past, Babulal Malviya, who was a minister of state in Digvijaya Singh government till 2003 had gone into political oblivion, after announcing quitting from electoral politics at a convention of village sarpanchs in 2013.
The candidate for Satna seat Raja Ram Tripathi, who is considered close to Ajay Singh ‘Rahul,’ had lost Vidhan Sabha polls from Nagod and Satna seats of Satna district in the past, which included losing his deposit from Nagod assembly seat. In 2009, Tripathi, who was then the Satna District Congress President had rebelled to contest as Samajwadi Party candidate from Satna Lok Sabha seat and finished third behind winner and sitting BJP MP Ganesh Singh and BSP candidate Sukhlal Kushwaha, after polling over 1.30 lakh votes. Owing to Tripathi contesting as SP candidate, the official Congress candidate Sudhir Singh Tomar had finished a distant fourth with just 90,000-odd votes.
Names of Tripathi and former deputy speaker of Vidhan Sabha Rajendra Singh were among frontrunners from Satna seat, but being close to Ajay Singh seems to have ensured that Tripathi got the Congress ticket.
Father-son duo to make electoral debut of sorts
The list also included two politician sons who will make their electoral debut in Lok Sabha polls. While CM Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath on expected lines has been fielded from father’s pocket-borough Chhindwara, another neta son Siddharth Tiwari, who is the son of ex-MP Sunderlal Tiwari (who died recently) and grandson of ex-Vidhan Sabha Speaker Sriniwas Tiwari, will be the candidate from Rewa seat.
Interestingly, both, CM Kamal Nath and son Nakul Nath will make their electoral debut of sorts. While the 72-year-old nine-time Lok Sabha member father will be contesting his first Vidhan Sabha elections from Chhindwara assembly seat (by-election to be held with LS polls), son Nakul Nath will be contesting Lok Sabha polls for the first time from Chhindwara seat. Chhindwara assembly seat from where Kamal Nath will contest the by-poll is one of eight assembly segments forming Chhindwara LS seat. The Chhindwara LS seat has been won nine times by Kamal Nath and by wife Alka Nath once in 1996.
Two other senior Congress leaders declared candidates, includes Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha from Jabalpur, who lost in 2014 from same seat against sitting MP and present state BJP president Rakesh Singh by over 2 lakh votes and Ajay Singh, who not only lost from Satna seat in 2014 by over 9,000 votes, but also suffered shock defeat against BJP’s Shardendu Tiwari in 2018 assembly polls from pocket-borough Churhat forming part of Sidhi LS seat. Singh has now been fielded from Sidhi LS seat.