Congress announces candidates for 3 more seats in MP, only Indore remains

BHOPAL: Congress on Saturday evening announced the names of three more candidates from the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The party has fielded state Congress vice-president Ashok Singh from Gwalior, former BSP member Dewashish Jararia from the scheduled caste reserved Bhind constituency and a young face Dinesh Girwal from the scheduled tribe reserved Dhar constituency.The party has announced candidates for 28 out of total 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh. The only seat where is it still looking for a suitable candidate is Indore, BJP bastion since 1989 represented by Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan for eight terms.On Friday, Congress had announced repeating former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna. Thereafter, it was clear there would be no major surprise for Gwalior Lok Sabha constituency. Ashok Singh has contested from the seat thrice and though he did not win even once, he remained the best option for the party. In 2014 Lok Sabha contest, in the middle of the pro-Narendra Modi wave, Ashok Singh was fielded against Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar who at that time was the state BJP president.Ashok Singh lost to Tomar by a margin 29,699 votes making the BJP stalwart move to Morena for this election. In 2009, Congress fielded Ashok Singh against BJP’s Yashodhara Raje and he was defeated by 26,591 votes. Singh’s first contest for Lok Sabha from Gwalior was in a bypoll against Yashodhara in 2007 and he lost that election by 36,474 votes.This time, the BJP has fielded Gwalior mayor Vivek Sejwalkar and though it is no royal contest, it is still bound to be interesting.Just before the November state assembly elections, BSP’s local leader from Bhind district Dewashish Jararia joined the Congress party. On Saturday, Dewashish emerged as the Congress’ candidate when big leaders like former home minister Mahendra Boudh was seeking candidature from the seat. Dewashish has been pitted against BJP’s Sandhya Rai.In Dhar, Congress has fielded 38-year-old Dinesh Girwal, a member of the district panchayat. He is known to close to Congress MLA from Badnawar assembly seat Rajwardhan Singh Dattigaon. Dinesh Girwal has been an active NSUI and Youth Congress leader in the district.