MP: Premchand Guddu and Imarti Devi kin in Congress first list for bypolls

BHOPAL

: Congress released it first list of 15 candidates on Friday for the bypolls in Madhya Pradesh, expected along with the Bihar assembly polls in November. With the list out, all eyes were on Sanwer, where former BJP leader

Premchand Guddu

—who has switched to Congress — has been fielded against Jyotiraditya Scindia’s right hand man, Tulsi Silawat, now a minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.


Guddu was Congress MLA of Sanwer from 1998 to 2003 and Ujjain

MP

from 2009 to 2014, but switched to BJP ahead of the 2018 assembly polls. Sources in Congress said Guddu wanted to contest from Sanwer in 2018 but was denied a ticket because Scindia wanted Silawat. Eighteen months later, with Scindia and Silawat in BJP, Guddu is back with Congress, setting the stage for a prize fight. Another interesting contest would be in Dabra where Scindia loyalist

Imarti Devi

, the minister for women and child welfare, will have to fight against a relative as Congress has fielded former BSP leader Suresh Raje in the SC-reserved seat. Imarti, expected to get the BJP ticket, is a three-time MLA from Dabra and Raje is related to her family by marriage.
Ex-Scindia loyalist pitted against BJP’s Tomar in Gwalior

Another interesting contest would be in Dabra where Scindia loyalist Imarti Devi, the minister for women and child welfare, will have to fight against a relative as Congress has fielded former BSP leader Suresh Raje in the SC-reserved seat. Imarti, expected to get the BJP ticket, is a three-time MLA from Dabra and Raje is related to her family by marriage.

Gwalior, the seat of power of Scindias, will see a curious contest. Here, Congress has fielded former Scindia loyalist Suresh Sharma, who was repeatedly denied a ticket earlier because Pradyumna Singh Tomar was the preferred candidate. Tomar had followed Scindia to BJP and is now a minister. Congress insiders say Sharma was always a strong candidate but could not contest.

NSUI state president Vipin Wankhede, who lost the 2018 assembly elections from Agar by just 2,490 votes, has been fielded again. The seat fell vacant because MLA Manohar Utwal of BJP died earlier this year.

Agar and Jaura are the only seats where BJP will have to look for candidates. In the remaining 25 seats, it is likely to field those who broke away from Congress and switched to the saffron party, pulling down the Kamal Nath-led Congress government.

Former BSP state president Phool Singh Baraiya is Congress’ candidate from Bhander in Datia district. Baraiya, known as a Dalit leader in Chambal, quit BSP to join Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, then launched his own party, Bahujan Sangharsh Dal, before joining Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. He was the party candidate for the third Rajya Sabha seat in MP this year and lost to BJP’s Sumer Singh Solanki.

Former BJP minister Kanhaiyalal Agarwal, who recently joined Congress, has been fielded from Bamori and is likely to face off with minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia. Agarwal was elected from this seat as a BJP candidate in 2008 but lost to Sisodia, who was then with Congress, in 2013. He was denied a ticket by BJP in 2018 and contested as independent but ended up third, with Sisodia winning again.

Keeping caste equations mind, Congress has fielded Ram Kishan Patel from Nepanagar, Madanlal Singh Ahirwar from Sanchi, Mewaram Jatav from Gohad, Pragilal Jatav from Karera and Rajveer Singh Baghel from Haatpipaliya.

Congress candidate from Ashokenagar is Asha Dohre, whose audio clip of complaining to Jyotiraditya Scindia had gone viral after he left Congress.

Satyaprakash Shakhwar is Congress candidate from Ambah, Ravindra Singh Tomar from Dimni and Vishwanath Singh Kunjam from Annuppur.

“The 15 candidates have been selected after surveys on the field. People of the constituency and party workers have recommended these candidates,” said PCC spokesman Durgesh Sharma, adding: “All the candidates will win with impressive margins. BJP and Jyotiraditya Scindia will face humiliating defeats.”

State BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agarwal retaliated by saying: “This Congress list is welcome because it has doubled the scope of BJP’s victory. If their slogan ‘bikau versus tikau’ does not stand after this list, it’d be because at least half a dozen candidates and their background says they have not been standing with Congress all along. Also, senior leader Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi has not been fielded because of factional feud. Digvijaya Singh, Ajay Singh and Dr Govind Singh have been opposed to his candidature.”

TNN

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