BHOPAL: Eyeing to wrest power from the BJP, three and half years after it’s 15-month-old government collapsed, the opposition Congress released it’s much awaited first list of 144 candidates for the November 17 Madhya Pradesh assembly polls on Sunday. While the Congress has named candidates on 144 out of the 230 seats, the ruling BJP has named 136 candidates so far.
The list which was released in the most auspicious muhurt on the first day of the Sharadiya Navratra, included 69 out of the 96 sitting MLAs, including 19 ministers of the 15-months-old previous Congress regime, among them former CM and state party chief Kamal Nath from his pocket-borough Chhindwara seat.
In a significant development, the grand old party which is reportedly pursuing the agenda of soft-Hindutva to counter BJP’s time-tested Hindutva agenda, fielded small screen’s ‘Hanuman,’ actor Vikram Mastal Sharma against CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Budhni seat of Sehore district. Mastal, who hails from Budhni, had enacted the role of Hanuman in Anand Sagar’s Ramayan and had joined the Congress on July 4. He is the head of Congress’s Narmada Sena formed for the cause of river Narmada in MP.
The party has denied tickets to at least five sitting MLAs, including ex-union minister Kantilal Bhuria from Jhabua-ST seat (his son Dr Vikrant Bhuria will be the candidate), Shiv Dayal Bagri from Gunnaur-SC seat, Bramha Bhalawi from Ghoradongri-SC seat, former Vidhan Sabha speaker NP Prajapati from Gotegaon-SC seat and Tamlal Sahare from Katangi seat.
Also, the party has fielded at least five former BJP leaders, including Avdhesh Nayak against home minister Narottam Mishra from Datia seat, former Jyotiraditya Scindia-loyalist Baijnath Yadav from Kolaras seat, Neeraj Sharma against Scindia-loyalist minister Govind Singh Rajput from Surkhi seat, Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav from Mungaoli and former BJP MP Bodh Singh Bhagat from Katangi seat.
On expected lines, the list is replete with flavor of dynastic politics, starting with seventh-times sitting MLA from Lahar (Bhind) seat and leader of opposition Dr Govind Singh, whose maternal nephew Rahul Bhadauria has been fielded from Mehgaon seat of the same Bhind district and Singh’s close relative ex-MLA Chanda Singh Gaur has been fielded against Uma Bharti’s MP minister nephew Rahul Singh from Khargapur seat of Tikamgarh district.
In Alirajpur district of western MP, both the Congress candidates come from the same family. While the first-time sitting MLA Mukesh Patel will be candidate from Alirajpur seat, his sister-in-law Sena Patel has been fielded from Jobat seat. In the adjoining Jhabua district, state Youth Congress’s chief Dr Vikrant Bhuria (who had lost in 2018 polls) has been fielded from Jhabua-ST seat which was won by his father and ex-union minister Kantilal Bhuria in the 2019 by-election.
Former CM Digvijaya Singh’s ex-MP minister and second-time MLA son Jaivardhan Singh has been fielded from the family’s pocket-borough Raghogarh and the ex-CM’s sitting MLA and former MP brother Lakshman Singh has been repeated from the Chachaura seat of Guna district. The Singh family’s close relative Priyavrat Singh (also a minister in the 15 months old previous Congress government) has been repeated from Khilchipur seat of Rajgarh district.
In Dhar district, while former deputy CM Late Jamuna Devi’s nephew and ex-minister the third-time sitting MLA Umang Singhar has been fielded again from Gandhwani-ST seat, second-time sitting MLA and former minister Surendra Singh Baghel has been repeated from Kukshi-ST seat, which was won by his father Pratap Singh Baghel three times between 1972 and 1980.
In Khandwa district, Rupali Nandu Bare (daughter of Congress veteran Nandu Bare, who failed to win despite contesting twice) who as rebel candidate finished third with 25,000-plus votes has been fielded from Pandhana-ST seat, while former MLA Rajnarayan Singh Purni’s son Uttam Pal Singh will contest from Mandhata seat.
In neighbouring Khargone district, former deputy CM Subhash Yadav’s younger son, the two-times sitting MLA and ex-minister Sachin Yadav will contest from family’s pocket-borough Kasrawad seat, while former MP minister and third-time sitting MLA Vijaylaxmi Sadho has been fielded from Maheshwar-SC seat, which was won by her father Sitaram Sadho thrice in the past.
In Indore district, former Ujjain and ex-Sanwer MLA Premchand Guddu’s daughter Rina Bhaurasi will be the candidate from Sanwer-SC seat.
Also, the sitting MLA Alok Chaturvedi (brother of former Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi) has been repeated from Chhatarpur seat, ex-MLA Hemant Katare (son of former LoP Satyadev Katare) will contest from his old seat Ater.
But it’s not just members of Congress’s political families, who have been fielded in the polls as Congress candidates, instead some candidates hail from non-Congress political families as well.
In Guna district’s Bamori seat, the party has fielded former minister and ex-BJP MLA Kanhaiyalal Agrawal’s son Rishi Agrawal. His father had lost the 2020 by-election from the same seat. In Pichhore seat, while the six-times sitting MLA KP Singh Kakkaju has been shifted to neighbouring Shivpuri seat, Shailendra Singh (son of former Shivpuri district BJP chief Padma Raje Bundela) will be the candidate from Pichhore seat. Even the candidate from Balaghat seat Anubha Munjare is the wife of ex-MLA Kankar Munjare.
The party has also named those who damaged the poll prospects as rebels in 2018.
While Independent MLA Kedar Singh Dabar has been fielded from Bhagwanpura seat, Maya Trivedi (who as rebel finished third with 15000-plus votes in 2018 polls) is the candidate from Ujjain-North seat and Dr Rashmi Singh Patel (who finished third with 25,000-plus votes in 2018) has been fielded from Nagod seat of Satna district.
In the 2018 assembly polls, the Congress won 114 seats in the 230-member House and formed a coalition government under veteran leader Kamal Nath with the support of the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and independent MLAs.
The Nath government, however, collapsed after 15 months when a section of Congress MLAs, most of them loyal to Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, quit the party and joined the BJP.
The saffron party returned to power in March 2020 with Shivraj Singh Chouhan taking over as chief minister for a record fourth term.