Ex-MP ministers seek tickets for LS elections

Bhopal, Aug 21: Five former Madhya Pradesh ministers who were denied Congress tickets for the November 1998 Assembly elections are trying...

Bhopal, Aug 21: Five former Madhya Pradesh ministers who were denied Congress tickets for the November 1998 Assembly elections are trying their luck in the Lok Sabha elections.

These five former ministers are Rajendra Singh (Satna), Satyadev Katare (Bhind), Tanwant Singh Keer (Khandwa), Jaswant Singh (Vidisha) and Rajkumar Patel (Hoshangabad).

Of these five, only Keer continued as a Minister till the November 1998 assembly elections while the remaining four were dropped from the Cabinet earlier on various grounds.

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Rajendra Singh was dropped as there was a corruption charge pending against him before the Lokayukta while the other three were axed as the Congress fared poorly in their constituencies during the February 1998 Lok Sabha polls. The contests involving these former ministers appear to be interesting as all of them are pitted against strong BJP candidates.

Katare is pitted against Dr Ram Lakhan Singh of BJP in Bhind from where the latter has won all the last three elections since 1991. RajendraSingh is contesting from Satna with BJP’s Ramanand Singh, who was a member of the dissolved Lok Sabha, as his main rival.