Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Apparently going against the guidelines of state BJP, groupism, favouritism and nepotism marked the list of party’s candidates for ward elections of Ujjain Municipal Corporation. Amid huge pulls and pressures, oppositions and demonstrations, the City BJP chief Vivek Joshi on late Thursday declared names of 49 candidates out of 54 wards. Candidates for ward numbers 6, 23, 29, 38, and 42 have been put on hold and may be announced on Friday.
Primarily, the camp led by cabinet minister Mohan Yadav seems to have over-powered all the opponent camps, but Ujjain North MLA Paras Jain also succeeded in securing tickets for his supporters including his personal assistant (PA). Member of Parliament (MP) Anil Firojia lobbied hard for four tickets, but could gain only two for his close associates. The name of candidates from 5 wards was put on hold reportedly due to sharp differences among Yadav, Jain and Firojia. Astonishingly, the party leadership decided to field some OBC candidates from open seats. June 18 is the last date of filing of nomination papers.
Wives and daughters of ex-corporators namely Reena wife of Sanjay Korat from ward number 1 (reserved for SC-woman), Rakhi daughter of Mangilal Kadel from ward 17 (reserved for SC woman), Navita Vikas Malviya from ward 50 (woman, open), Suman Babulal Baghela ex-Congress corporator who joined the BJP from ward 54 (reserved for SC woman) have got the tickets.
The party has fielded ex-corporators Kalavati Yadav again from ward number 15 (reserved for OBC woman), Yogeshwari Rathore from ward-25 (woman, open), Leela Verma from ward 33 (for ST open) and Durga Chaudhari from ward-36 (open, woman).
Likewise, former corporators who have been fielded again include Pankaj Choudhari from ward-3 (OBC, open), Gajendra Sakhlecha from ward 9 (unreserved), Yogesh Bhati Gabbar from ward-10 (unreserved), Prakash Sharma from ward-20 (unreserved), Geeta Rami from ward 26 (reserved for OBC woman) and Sunil Goyal from ward 28 (OBC, open).
In a surprising development, names of ex and former corporators including Girish Shastri, Satya Narayan Chauhan, Rituabal Vyas, Rajshri Joshi, Radhe Shyam Verma, Buddhi Prakash Soni have been dropped.
Two supporters of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia namely Dilip Singh Parmar from ward number 5 (unreserved) and Sangram Singh Bhatia from ward-35 (unreserved) got the tickets. They were backed by former Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti who joined the BJP along with Scindia.
MP Firojia succeeded to secure tickets for Seemranjeet Kaur from ward-44 (open, woman) and Ahna Khan from ward 52 (woman, open). Khan is an outside candidate for her ward. Similarly, MLA Paras Jain succeeded in securing a ticket for his PA Himanshu Gupta from ward 12 (unreserved).
The party has fielded some candidates who belong to OBC or ST from unreserved (open) wards. It includes Dilip Parmar (OBC),from ward 5 (unreserved)- ward 10 (unreserved)-Yogesh alias Gabbar Bhati (OBC), ward-34 (unreserved)-Bharati Choudhari (OBC), ward-36 (woman, open)-Durga Chaudhari (OBC) and ward 50 (woman, open)-Navita Malviya (OBC).
