
The Congress party Sunday released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.
Jaivardhan Singh, the son of former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, has been fielded from the Raghogarh seat. He was a minister in the last Kamal Nath government that collapsed in March 2021.
Sanjay Shukla will be contesting from Indore-1 against BJP’s vocal national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. Shukla won by over 8,000 votes in 2018.
The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Do Govind Singh has been fielded from Lahar district. He is seen as close to both senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh. In 2018, Singh had won Lahar for the seventh time, beating his BJP rival by over 9,000 votes.
Rau district will be contested by its current MLA and former minister of higher education, sports and youth affairs, Jitu Patwari. He is also the co-chairman of the MP Congress Committee.
Madhya Pradesh Congress Candidates List by Srishti Kapoor on Scribd
Madhya Pradesh Congress Candidates List by Srishti Kapoor on Scribd
The candidates list was followed by reiteration of the poll promise of “OBC ko 27% aarakshan” (27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Classes). As part of the campaigning, Nath has been reminding people about the OBC reservation hike to 27 per cent in government jobs through the Public Service Commission by his government in 2019.
The Congress with its campaigning is looking to better its good 2018 performance, when it had emerged as the single largest party and formed the government with support from the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and Independents to end 15 years of BJP rule.