Indore (Madhya Pradesh): By announcing the names of candidates for three more seats, Congress has cleared the air over all nine assembly seats in Indore district. Moreover, the party has fielded three Brahmin candidates from three seats of Indore for the first time i.e. Sanjay Shukla from Indore-I, Pintu Joshi from Indore-III, and Ramkishore Shukla from Mhow. In the events that unfolded late at night on Thursday, the party added the name of Pintu Joshi to the list as the candidate from Indore-III, at the last minute before releasing the list.
“Earlier, Pintu’s name was sidelined during the discussion and party leaders had decided to bet on Arvind Bagdi from the constituency. Party was reluctant on Pintu’s ticket as two tickets to Brahmin candidates were already finalised i.e. Sanjay Shukla and Ramkishore Shukla,” a party leader said. Pintu Joshi and Ramkishore Shukla are the new faces while the ticket of Satyanarayan Patel has been repeated from Indore-V.
Indore-III: Deepak Joshi ‘Pintu’
After brainstorming over the names of Pintu Joshi and Arvind Bagdi, Congress has chosen the younger one to contest the election and to put the seat back in Congress’ bag. Pintu won the ticket race at the last minute as not only Bagdi but he too was facing a challenge from his cousin Ashwin Joshi who allegedly threatened the party to not support Pintu. However, Pintu’s activeness in the constituency for the last two elections eased his way in getting the ticket. Ashwin Joshi had staked a claim for the ticket but was sidelined by the party as he had lost the elections twice. Indore-3 was the traditional seat for Congress as Ashwin Joshi had won three back-to-back elections from 1998 to 2008. BJP’s Usha Thakur had broken his winning streak in 2013 and later Akash Vijayavargiya secured the seat by defeating Joshi by 5,751 votes.
Indore-IV: Satyanarayan Patel
Putting aside the criteria of losing back-to-back elections, the party has shown trust on the experienced Satyanarayan Patel over Swapnil Kothari. The decision of selecting a candidate from this seat was the toughest as Satyanarayan Patel and Swapnil Kothari both were strong candidates and enjoy the support of Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath respectively. In 2018, Patel lost the election to Mahendra Hardia by a margin of 1,132 votes. Hardia had snatched the seat from Patel in 2003 and won four elections back-to-back.
Mhow: Ramkishore Shukla
Congress has selected Ram Kishore Shukla over many other ticket aspirants in Mhow including senior leader Antar Singh Darbar. Shukla joined the party just a month ago and managed to get the ticket. He has been a Congressman since student politics and joined BJP in 2003. He also has a strong hold in Nagar Parishad, Mhow for 15 years and this had greatly helped the BJP to win elections in Mhow thrice. The constituency has been a BJP bastion ever since Kailash Vijayavargiya snatched the seat from Antar Singh Darbar in 2008, retained the seat in 2013 and then in 2018, Usha Thakur defeated Darbar by 7,157 votes.
