The BJP on Saturday released a fifth list of 92 candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh elections, dropping sitting Indore-3 MLA Akash Vijayvargiya, son of the party stalwart Kailash Vijayvargiya who is in the fray from the Indore-1 segment. With the latest list, the ruling party has so far declared 228 out of 230 candidates for the forthcoming elections except for the Guna and Vidisha seats.
Rakesh Golu Shukla will be contesting from the Indore-3 constituency in place of Akash Vijayvargiya. Shukla is the cousin of Sanjay Shukla, the Congress legislator from Indore-1.
On October 16, Kailash Vijayvargiya had said that Akash had written to BJP president JP Nadda requesting not to consider him for the ticket this time as the party had fielded his father.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s nephew Anup Mishra has also been denied a ticket – he was apparently vying for Gwalior South.
MP ex-minister Narayan Singh Kushwaha has been nominated for the seat. Mishra had unsuccessfully contested the last state polls from the Bhitarwar constituency in Gwalior.
Twenty-nine MLAs, including ministers OPS Bhadoriya, Yashodhara Scindia, and Gaurishankar Bisen, have been dropped, while 37 lawmakers have again made to the party’s latest list. Scindia has already shown her unwillingness to fight elections citing health reasons.
The latest list includes the names of 12 women candidates, including former state ministers Maya Singh and Archana Chitnis from the Gwalior East and Burhanpur assembly segments, respectively. Incumbent minister Usha Thakur is renominated from the Mhow seat.
The single phase polling for 230 seats will be held on November 17 and counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.