The Indian National Congress has released its first list of candidates for the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana polls. The assembly elections will be held in Madhya Pradesh on November 17, Chhattisgarh on November 7 and 17, and Telangana on November 30. The results for all of these states will be declared on December 3.
MADHYA PRADESH
Congress has fielded senior party leader Kamal Nath from the Chhindwara seat. Former chief minister Digvijaya Singh’s son Jaivardhan Singh has been fielded from Raghigath seat. While, Vikram Mastal — who played Hanuman role in a TV series in 2008 — has been put up by against MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the Budhni constituency.
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Congress has also put up 5-time MLA from Picchore, KP Singh, as its candidate from Shivpuri. This is a strong move in anticipation that BJP could put up Jyotiraditya Scindia from this seat after his aunt and sitting MLA Yashodara Raje Scindia said she that won’t contest.
The state will go for polling in a single phase, like the last time in 2018. The Madhya Pradesh assembly elections 2018 were conducted on November 28 and the results were announced on December 11. The Congress ended up being the single largest party with 114 seats, two short of a majority in the 230-member assembly.
Congress has released its candidates’ list for Madhya Pradesh in the backdrop of a war of words between the state’s chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and senior party leader Kamal Nath and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over poll promises.
Chouhan alleged that Kamal Nath was cheating the Gandhi family by forcing them to make false announcements over the party’s promises of free education and cash incentives to students. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had said the Congress would provide scholarships to every child in Madhya Pradesh irrespective of caste, religion and class under the scholarship scheme if the party is voted to power.
CHHATTISGARH
In Chhattisgarh, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel will contest from the Patan constituency, while the deputy chief minister T S Singh Deo will be contesting from Ambikapur constituency.
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Chhattisgarh polls will witness a clash between Bhupesh Baghel and BJP’s state president Vijay Baghel. The latter is also a sitting Member of Parliament. The two are long time rivals for the Patan seat, where the score — in favour of Bhupesh Baghel — has remained two for one.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday during a press conference responded to a question asking if the BJP was was planning to take advantage from the presence of parties like the Ajit Jogi-founded Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and some other smaller outfits, Baghel said, “You have to understand the chronology. On one hand Amit Jogi (of the Ajit Jogi founded party) files a case in court, on the other hand he gets security”.
“The alliance between the JCC(J) and Bahujan Samaj Party has ended. The BSP has entered into a coalition with Gondwana Gantantra Party. BSP is sitting in the lap of the BJP. The Aam Aadmi Party is also the B team (of the BJP) here. It is trying to damage the Congress,” he claimed.
Baghel, however, said the people of Chhattisgarh were intelligent and were closely watching such moves.
The elections will be held in two phases on November 7 and 17. The Chhattisgarh assembly election 2018 was also held in two phases on November 12 and 20. The results were announced with the assembly election results on December 11. The Congress won the election in a landslide victory giving a severe blow to the BJP, where the party was in power for the past 15 years.
TELANGANA
According to the candidates list for Telangana, Congress state president Anumula Revanth Reddy is set to contest from the Kodangal constituency, while Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera’s wife and party leader, Dr Kota Neelima will be contesting from Sanathnagar.
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Meanwhile, the BJP has not even called its election committee meeting for the Telangana polls. While Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s (BRS) supremo and chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao has announced all his tickets barring four and Congress today has released the name of its 55 candidates.
The Telangana state assembly elections 2018 was conducted in a single phase on December 7 and the results were declared with other poll-bound states on December 11. K Chandrashekar Rao and his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) swept the polls in the state by winning 88 seats out of 119.
The Congress on Thursday had constituted an election coordination committee for Telangana assembly polls which included party MP and whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore. Besides Tagore, the panel included party leaders Deepa Das Munshi, Meenakshi Natarajan and Kunduru Jana Reddy.
On the other hand, Congress on Friday was allegedly accused of pumping crores of rupees into Telangana to purchase votes in the upcoming Assembly polls by BRS Working President KT Rama Rao. Tagging a news report suggesting that over Rs 40 crore in cash was found during Income Tax searches in Karnataka, Rama Rao in a message posted on X asked people to say No to Scamgress in Telangana.
