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.
