Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Bharatiya Janta Party, which shocked one and all by its second list of candidates for the ensuing assembly elections, did not throw up any surprises in its fourth list as far as tickets on seats in Indore district are concerned.
The party fielded three-time MLAs Ramesh Mendola from Indore-2, Malini Gaud from Indore-4 and water resource minister Tulsiram Silawat from Sanwer seat once again.
Ramesh Mendola |
While Mendola had won polls by the biggest margin of votes, to be precise 71,011 votes, from Indore-2 in Indore district, Gaud stood second in the district by winning by a margin of 43,090 votes in 2018 assembly elections.
Tulsiram Silawat |
Silawat had contested the 2018 polls on a Congress ticket and won by a margin of 2,945 votes. However, he crossed over to BJP in 2020 and then won by-polls by a margin of 53,264 from Sanwer.
While there were no two thoughts in anybody’s mind that civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s protégé Silawat would get ticket from Sanwer once again, many doubted that Gaud would get ticket again from Indore-4 as many were seeking the ticket from this constituency called as “Ayodhya of Indore”.
From MP Shankar Lalwani to Mala Thakur and Vijay Malani to Sudharsh Gupta were in the race for the ticket. A group of party leaders had even gone to Bhopal and met seniors stating that party workers did not want any member from the Gaud family to be fielded again in the polls.
However, Malini Gaud had the last laugh.
As far as Indore-2 seat is concerned, a few people speculated that Mendola could be shifted to either Indore-3 or Indore-5 constituency as the saffron party faces a tough contest from Congress on these two seats.
It was speculated that Ayushi Deshmukh, wife of Bhaiyyu Maharaj, could be fielded from Indore-2, if BJP, in any case shifted Mendola to some other seats. “The speculations were on a very flimsy ground. The party, which in a tough contest with Congress, did not want to take a risk on any of the nine seats in Indore district so it fielded their winnable candidates,” said a senior party leader.
Thakur unlikely from Mhow!
Political pundits predicted that the BJP is unlikely to field cultural minister Usha Thakur from Mhow seat. “Thakur hasn’t lost any of the three elections she has contested so far but anti-incumbency grows so much against her that party changes her seat every time she is given a ticket,” said a senior party functionary. He stated that Thakur could be given ticket from any seat but Mhow. As per information, RSS has thrown its weight behind Dr Nishant Khare who has been active in Mhow for the past three to four years.
Who from Indore-3 and Indore-5?
Many names are doing rounds from Indore-3 and Indore-5 constituencies. Though the sitting MLA from Indore-3 is Akash Vijayvargiya, the party is unlikely to field, him this time around as his father and senior leader Kailash Vijayvargiya has been given ticket from Indore-1 seat. Similarly, Indore-5 is represented by three-time BJP MLA Mahendra Hardia. However, many in BJP doubt that he would be given ticket this time. BJP city chief Gourav Ranadive, former Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s son Mandhar, his wife and Sudarshan Gupta are among others who are in the race for the ticket.
