After many rounds of deliberations, the Congress on October 15 (Sunday), the first day of Hindu Navratri festival, released its first list of 144 candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.
The party has fielded Pradesh Congress Committee chief and its chief ministerial candidate, Kamal Nath, from his home-turf Chhindwara. TV actor-turned-politician Vikram Mastal, who played Hanuman in the Ramayan serial in 2008, has been fielded from Budhni constituency against Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Out of party’s 96 sitting MLAs, 69 have succeeded in securing tickets in the first list, including former Minister Jitu Patwari from Rau and Kamleshwar Patel from Sihawal. Sitting MLA Sanjay Shukla will contest in Indore-1 against BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s son Jaivardhan Singh has been fielded from Raghogarh and his brother Lakshman Singh from Chachoura in Guna.
Elections to 230 seats of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly will be held on November 17 and the last date to file nominations is October 30. The BJP has already announced 136 candidates.
While the Congress waited for the Pitru Paksha (a 16-day period in the Hindu calendar to honor deceased ancestors) to be over to announce candidates, the BJP’s first list with 39 names had come as early as August 17.
The party’s decision to field Mr. Mastal against Mr. Chouhan is also seen as one of its many moves to neutralise the BJP’s hindutva card. After the announcement, media adviser to Mr. Nath, Piyush Babele shared a clip, with edited voice over, from Mr. Mastal’s serial on social media platform X.
“This video of Hanuman ji went very viral after the Karnataka elections. Now this Hanuman ji i.e. Vikram Mastal ji is the Congress candidate from Budhni in front of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. Jai Hanuman ji,” he wrote in the post.
The voice over in the video shows lord Ram directing lord Hanuman to help ‘bhakt Kamal Nath’ secure victory in Madhya Pradesh.
Among the 144 names, 19 are women, 39 candidates are from backward classes. The party has also given tickets to 30 Scheduled Tribe (ST) leaders and 22 leaders from Scheduled Caste (SC).
Countering heavyweights
The party has also fielded candidates against some of BJP heavyweights. Lakhan Singh Patel will contest in Narsinghpur against Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel and Awadesh Nayak has been fielded from Datia against State Home Minister Narottam Mishra. Mr. Nayak had joined the Congress after quitting the BJP in August.
However, with the announcement of the first list, various ticket hopefuls and other leaders quit the party. In Gwalior, party leader Kedar Kansan resigned from the Congress and declared that he will definitely contest the polls. Sharda Khateek, who was trying for a ticket from Sagar’s Nariaoli also left the party.
Vice-president of State Congress media department Ajay Singh Yadav also resigned from his post accusing the party of ignoring the backward classes in his district Tikamgarh. In his resignation letter, he claimed that more than 70% of voters in the district were from backward class but the party has fielded upper caste candidates on all three open seats.
A State unit leader, however, said that names have been finalised after multiple rounds of surveys and their winnability. “There are so many people seeking ticket from one seat. The party cannot accommodate everybody,” he said.
He said that the remaining names will be declared in the next few days.
Leaders quitting their respective parties and switching sides has been frequent in the State with polling date inching closer. Several BJP leaders too have quit the party after criticising it over candidate selection.
