BHOPAL/RAIPUR/HYDERABAD: The Congress on Sunday released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. Unrest brewed within the party ranks in Madhya Pradesh after it named candidates for 144 of the state’s 230 seats, where it is eyeing to wrest power from the BJP.
The list included 69 out of the party’s 96 sitting MLAs. Nineteen former ministers from the previous Congress regime, including former CM Kamal Nath are on the list. The party has denied tickets to at least five sitting MLAs, including ex-Union minister Kantilal Bhuria, Shivdayal Bagri, Bramha Bhalawi, and former Vidhan Sabha speaker N P Prajapati. At least five former BJP leaders will fight on the Congress ticket. They are former Jyotiraditya Scindia loyalist Baijnath Yadav, Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav, ex-MP Bodh Singh Bhagat, Avdhesh Nayak, and Neeraj Sharma.
Protests and resignations by party workers and leaders, who were unhappy with the candidate selection, were reported from many places in the state. In neighbouring Chhattisgarh, the party released its initial list of 30 candidates to the 90-member House. It retained the entire cabinet team of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel but dropped as many as eight sitting MLAs.
In Telangana, after a lot of bickering and discussions, the party released the list of candidates for 55 out of 119 seats. The list had names of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief A Revanth Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, members of Parliament (MPs) N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy. Surprisingly, the names of TPCC campaign committee chairman Madhu Goud Yaskhi, TPCC working president Mahesh Kumar Goud and former MP Ponnam Prabhakar are absent from the list.
BJP poll committee meeting cancelled
A meeting of the BJP Central Election Committee, which was to be held on Sunday to shortlist candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in five states, did not take place