Congress to field Dhanopia, Manak in assembly elections

BHOPAL: The spokesman of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) and former chief of the party's legal cell JP Dhanopia and former spokesperson Manak Agrawal are likely to be fielded by the Congress for the assembly elections.
While Dhanopia is being considered as a candidate to take on veteran BJP leader and urban development minister Babulal Gaur from Govindpura constituency, Manak Agarwal might be fielded from Hoshangabad.
The state Congress election campaign committee with all leading central leaders from Madhya Pradesh including AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh, Union ministers Kamal Nath and campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia, held a meeting in New Delhi on Sunday to decide the names of candidates for all 230 assembly seats.
Earlier on September 14, the party held its first election meeting to finalize candidates where it was decided to field all 64 sitting MLAs. Seven Congress candidates who lost the 2008 elections by less than 1,000 votes will also get tickets for the upcoming assembly polls. The first list of 72 candidates was sent earlier to the screening committee while on Sunday discussion was on candidates for the remaining 158 constituencies.
On Monday, the Congress will hold public meetings in Vidisha and Shajapur with Digvijaya Singh, Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, PCC chief Kantilal Bhuria and Ajay Singh as speakers. After the announcement of Scindia as state election campaign chairman, the party is all set to take on BJP in its bastion Vidisha, which is Lok Sabha leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj's constituency. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's Budhni assembly constituency is also part of Vidisha Lok Sabha seat.
Before becoming chief minister, Chouhan represented this seat for five consecutive terms. Vidisha was also former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's constituency in 1990. Monday's public meeting will reveal whether the charm of the 'maharaja of Gwalior' can demolish the saffron fortress.