MP election 2023: BJP releases second list, 3 union ministers to contest

BJP second list: The party has now declared candidates for 76 out of the 230 seats in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its second list of candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, fielding union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Singh Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste, as well as four other MPs.

BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya has also been included in the list, a decade after he won the Mhow seat of native Indore district for the second time in 2013. He will contest from Indore-1 seat.
 

With the party fielding three Modi government ministers for the polls, it has virtually crowded out the space for chief ministerial aspirants in the state.

The party has so far maintained that it will fight the assembly elections under collective leadership, refusing to specify whether Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would be reappointed if it returns to power.

"With Union ministers and even Kailash Vijayvargiya being fielded, the party's message is clear: the chief minister will be decided after the results. This also suggests that all leaders will contribute their best efforts, as they all appear to have a chance," a senior BJP leader was quoted as saying by ThePrint.

The party leader added, "This move underscores the significance of the elections for the party, and signals a robust election campaign ahead. The early release of the candidate list, well before the polls are announced, indicates that the party has a well-defined strategy in place to eliminate any gaps before the elections. It will also provide ample time for the candidates to connect with the voters."

MP polls: BJP leaders and their constituencies

The BJP has nominated Union Minister Tomar from Dimani and Minister of State Prahlad Singh Patel from the Narsinghpur seat. Vijayvargiya has been chosen for the Indore-1 constituency, while Minister of State Kulaste has been ticketed for the Niwas seat, which is reserved for a Scheduled Tribe candidate. "With Kailash being selected for Indore, it's unlikely his son will receive a nomination," said a senior BJP leader.

Four sitting Lok Sabha members have also been included in the list. Four-time MP from the Satna seat, Ganesh Singh, will run from his current constituency; second-time sitting MP Riti Pathak from the Sidhi Lok Sabha seat has been selected for the Sishi assembly seat; four-time Jabalpur MP Rakesh Singh will contest the Jabalpur-West seat, and three-time MP from the Hoshangabad seat, Uday Pratap Singh, will run from the Gadarwara seat in Narsinghpur district.

BJP MLA Kedarnath Shukla currently holds the Sidhi Assembly seat. It is rumoured that he is being denied a ticket due to a video featuring his alleged supporter, Pravesh Shukla, urinating on a tribal man.

The BJP had previously released a first list featuring 37 candidates. With this latest announcement, the party has now declared candidates for 76 of the 230 seats in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

Madhya Pradesh is among five states, including Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Mizoram, that are scheduled for elections later this year. Only one of these states currently has a BJP government.

In the last assembly election in 2018, the Congress took power and formed a government under the leadership of senior member Kamal Nath. However, the BJP assumed control in 2020 after then-Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, along with 22 Members of the Legislative Assembly, defected to the BJP.