Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Congress has declared 25 candidates for the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The party has yet to declare candidates for three seats – Gwalior, Morena and Khandwa.
The Khajuraho seat has been given to the party’s alliance partner, the Samajwadi Party (SP).
The Congress is trying to field candidates from Gwalior and Morena keeping in mind the caste equations of the area.
If Praveen Pathak is fielded from Gwalior, the party will search for a Kshatriya candidate from Morena.
For Morena seat, MPCC president Jitu Patwari wants to give a ticket to party legislator from Joura, Pankaj Upadhyay.
Nevertheless, the party leadership is not keen on fielding Brahmin candidates from these two seats.
This is the reason why a decision has not been taken for these two seats.
A candidate for the Khandwa seat could not be declared because of Arun Yadav.
The party has to take a decision on whether Yadav contests from this seat or some other person is given a ticket.
Keeping in mind the Yadav voters, the Congress has fielded Yadvendra Singh Yadav from Guna. He lost the assembly election in Mugawali assembly seat.
The party has fielded Tarbar Lodhi from Damoh considering the Lodhi voters in the constituency.
Because the party could not find a suitable candidate, it has fielded 77-year-old Pratapbhanu Sharma from Vidisha after a long time.
Pratapbhanu and BJP candidate Shivraj Singh Chouhan fought against each other 33 years ago in 1991 when Chouhan contested the first Lok Sabha election and defeated Pratapbhanu. They are facing each other again.
