Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Congress’s exercise for choosing candidates for the ensuing election has reached the last stage. The party has chosen 140 candidates and is deliberating over 90 names.
Those who have been given green light to contest the polls include 90 legislators and 50 others. The party has also chosen the candidates to be pitted against the ministers and the legislators who defected to BJP along with Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Apart from that, the candidates to be fielded against the BJP veterans have also been selected. Rajkumar Patel may be fielded from Budhni, Awdhesh Nayam from Datia, Arunoday Choubey from Khurai, Neeraj Sharma from Surkhi, Rina Baurasi from Sanwer and Ramkishore Shukla from Mhow. Similarly, Manoj Shukla may be fielded from Narela, Jitendra Daga from Hujur, Swapnil Kothari from Indore-5, Roshni Yadav from Niwari, Bhanwari Singh Shekhawat from Badnawar, Virendra Raghuwanshi from Shivpuri and Hemant Katare from Ater.
The other candidates are likely to be Surendra Choudhary from Naryawali, Chanda Gaur from Khargapur, Mukesh Nayak from Pawai, Rajendra Singh from Aamarpatan, Ajay Singh from Churhat, Nilesh Awasthi from Patan, Shailendra Patel from Ichhawar, Shashank Saxena from Sehore, Prabha Gautam from Dhar, Rajveer Singh Baghel from Hatpiplya, Deepak Joshi from Khategaon, Samandar Patel from Jawad and Maya Trivedi from Ujjain north. Except for a few legislators, most of the candidates will be declared in the first list.
The names of Kamal Nath from Chhindwara, Jaiwardhan Singh from Raghogarh, Jitu Patwari from Rau, Arif Masood from Bhopal Central, Atif Aqueel from Bhopal North, PC Sharma from Bhopal south-west and Govind Singh from Lahar may figure in the first list.
The party may not declare in the first list the names of Ajaib Singh Kushwaha from Sumawali, Rakesh Mawai from Morena, Suresh Raje from Dabra, Mewaram Jatav from Gohad, Sunil Sararf from Kotma and Sunita Patel from Gadarwara.
MPC president Kamal Nath has already asked those who will be given tickets to prepare for the election. Those who are not being given tickets have been advised against doing any anti-party activities. Former chief Digvijaya Singh has been deployed to deal with the disgruntled elements in the party.
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