Played last bet of 'false' hope: Kamal Nath on BJP's 2nd list of candidates

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) releasing its second list of 39 candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, state Congress chief Kamal Nath on Monday said that the ruling party has accepted defeat in MP and played its "last bet of false hope".

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Nath said, "The candidates' list of the BJP, which claims to have crores of party workers, is surely a stamp on the party's internal defeat and refutes the claims of development during the eighteen-and-a-half years of BJP government and more than 15 years of Shivraj's (Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) rule."

The Congress leader also said the hollow claims of Madhya Pradesh's development have been exposed and proved to be a "white lie".

Nath has often accused Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of lying. He said that even the Prime Minister is troubled by the double speed of lies machine by Chouhan.

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"Whenever the Prime Minister comes to Madhya Pradesh, you [Shivraj Singh Chouhan] involve him in one or the other lie. Along with the people of Madhya Pradesh, the Prime Minister is also troubled by the double speed of your lie machine, that is why he has excluded you from the entire election campaign. You have become the first chief minister of the country who is the chief minister but is not the face of the chief minister," he wrote on X.

BJP's second list of candidates for Madhya Pradesh

The BJP made room for three union ministers and several MPs, including Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Patel, minister of state for food processing, in its second list of candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh.

According to the list released on Monday, Tomar will contest from Dimani and Patel from Narsinghpur.

Minister for State for Rural Development Faggan Singh Kulaste will also fight the elections from Niwas, a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs).

MPs such as Ganesh Singh, Rakesh Singh, Riti Pathak, and national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya have also been given tickets to contest. Hoshangabad MP Uday Pratap Singh will contest from Gadarwara.

The BJP has so far declared candidates for 78 out of the total 230 seats in MP, including its first list of 39 names released in August.

The state elections are due this year-end. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has not yet announced the poll schedule.