Big guns, big noise

BHOPAL, Jan 11: Four ex-chief ministers, half-a-dozen former Union ministers, the national president of one party and vice-president of anot...

BHOPAL, Jan 11: Four ex-chief ministers, half-a-dozen former Union ministers, the national president of one party and vice-president of another will contest the forthcoming elections from Madhya Pradesh.

Throw in the Congress8217; star campaigner, Sonia Gandhi, who will be touring the tribal belt extensively and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who may yet contest from his old constituency, Vidisha, and MP is assured a lot of space in the limelight.

While the final lists of all the parties are likely to be out next week, the campaign programmes have already been drawn up. Vajpayee is starting his MP tour from Indore on January 13 and will canvass in Raipur, Chhindwara and Raigarh over the next two days, before heading for Orissa. Sonia is launching her campaign from Bhilai on 19th. She will visit Jhabua and Bastar to attract the tribal vote.

The BJP8217;s list is more or less decided and names of candidates for 35 out of the 40 constituencies have already been announced. Former chief minister Sunderlal Patwa will take on former Union minister Kamalnath in Chhindwara and Virendra Saklecha is likely to be fielded from Satna. Former Union minister Sartaj Singh or state general secretary Shivraj Singh will take on Arjun Singh in Hoshangabad. Vijayraje Scindia will contest the Guna seat while her son Madhavrao Scindia will be in the fray in Gwalior.

The Congress, which is fighting a bitter battle to protect one of its last bastions, is deploying formidable names in the campaign. Apart from Arjun Singh, Kamalnath and Scindia, former chief minister Motilal Vora, V C Shukla or his brother S C Shukla and Congress spokesman Ajit Jogi will be unleashed on the electorate.

Other parties are also wheeling out their biggest guns for the battle royale that is expected. Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav is likely to return to his original Lok Sabha constituency, Jabalpur, from where he won in 1977. Yadav, who is not confident of winning the Madhepura seat where Laloo Yadav will be taking him on a straight contest, has decided to contest from Jabalpur as well where he went to college and emerged as a leftist student leader. Uma Bharti is believed to be pressing for a ticket from Jabalpur and that will make for one of the most interesting contests in the State.

Former Union minister and general secretary of the BSP Arvind Netam and new entrant Akhand Yadav will lead the Dalit brigade into the battle. Netam will contest from Bastar as well as Janjgir. Among others whose names are in circulation is bandit queen Phoolan Devi who is likely to contest from Khajuraho which is Uma Bharti8217;s original constituency.