Madhya Pradesh elections: BJP banks on top guns, fields 3 Union ministers, four MPs

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, September 25

The BJP today fielded three Union ministers, a national general secretary and four sitting Lok Sabha MPs as candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh elections, raising the stakes in what promises to be a high-pitched battle between the saffron dispensation and the rival Congress.

The second BJP list of 39 MP candidates features Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar; MoS of Jal Shakti Prahlad Patel; and MoS for Steel and Rural Development Faggan Singh Kulaste. The BJP has also fielded sitting Lok Sabha members Riti Pathak (Sidhi MP), Ganesh Singh (Satna), Uday Pratap Singh (Hoshanabad) and Rakesh Singh (Jabalpur). The MPs will contest from Sidhi; Satna, Gadarwara and Jabalpur Paschim, respectively. Tomar has been fielded from Dimani; Patel from Narsinghpur, and Kulaste from Niwas ST seat.

BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya will contest from Indore-1. Of the eight seats from where top BJP leaders will fight, six are held by the Congress.

Only in Sidhi and Narsinghpur, the BJP has replaced its sitting MLAs with sitting MPs. The fact that the BJP has asked central ministers to contest signals its acknowledgment that the fight will be tough and its readiness to go all out to defend the saffron rule. The first list of 39 BJP candidates was released on August 17. The names are finalised by the central election committee chaired by PM Modi.