MP: Chouhan to fight polls, Cong's Nath, Scindia to sit it out

Among the chief minister aspirants from both the BJP and Congress in Madhya Pradesh, only incumbent CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan will contest Assembly polls scheduled for November 28.

Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia, both considered claimants to the coveted chair, are Lok Sabha MPs and are unlikely to contest the polls.

State Congress unit president Nath is a nine-time MP from Chhindwara while the party's campaign committee chief Scindia represents Guna in the Lok Sabha.

"So far, there is no chance of Scindia and Nath contesting Assembly polls," a Congress spokesperson told PTI.

The ruling BJP stole a march on the Congress Friday by releasing its first list of 177 candidates for the Assembly polls, fielding CM Chouhan from Budhni seat.

Budhni, in the state's Sehore district, is Chouhan's home turf and is close to his ancestral village Jait.

He was first elected as MLA from Budhni in 1990 before becoming MP by winning a bypoll from the the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat in 1991 after former Prime Minister Atal Bihrai Vajpayee quit the seat.

Chouhan went on win the Vidisha LS seat in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004.

In 2005, Chouhan took over as MP CM and in 2006 contested from Budhni to get elected to the MP Assembly. He beat the Congress' Rajkumar Patel, a former minister, by a margin of 36,000 votes.

He won from the seat again in the 2008 and 2013 Assembly polls, defeating the Congress' Mahesh Singh Rajput and Mahendra Singh Chauhan by a margin of 41,000 votes and 84,000 votes respectively.

According to party sources, Chouhan has nurtured Budhni well with his wife, Sadhna Singh, and son Kartikey taking charge of the campaigning.

Kartikey has been touring and addressing meetings in Budhni for the part 3-4 years to maintain a connect with the people of the constituency.

Kartikey was in the news recently after Congress president Rahul Gandhi inadvertently linked his name to the Panama Paper leak after which the former filed a defamation case at a Bhopal court.

Besides, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP convener, Alok Agrawal, who was declared as his party's CM face, is contesting from Bhopal south west seat.

The counting of votes for the 230-member House is scheduled for December 11.