Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur Misses Ticket, Shivaraj Singh Chouhan to Contest From Vidisha
Bhopal: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with the intention of a clean sweep in Madhya Pradesh, has announced candidates for 24 out of the 29 seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Former Chief Minister Shivaraj Singh Chouhan, despite not being reinstated as CM when the party returned to power, has been named as the candidate from the Vidisha constituency. Vidisha is a favored constituency for Chouhan, and if elected, it will mark his sixth term as MP. Chouhan holds the credit for being one of the longest-serving Chief Ministers of the BJP.
Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will contest from Guna. The President of the Madhya Pradesh unit of the BJP, V.D. Sharma, will contest from Khajuraho, and Ganesh Singh has been retained from the Satna constituency. Bhopal Mayor Alok Sharma will replace sitting MP Pragya Singh Thakur and will contest from the Bhopal constituency.
Pragya Singh Thakur defeated Congress veteran and two-time Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh by a margin of 3,64,822 votes. This marks the third time that the saffron party is fielding a new face in the last three parliamentary elections from Bhopal.
Interestingly, the BJP has not named its candidate for Chhindwara, the only seat it lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Shiv Mangal Singh Tomar will be contesting the election from the Morena constituency, and Janardhan Mishra will contest from Rewa.
Some other candidates from Madhya Pradesh include Mahendra Solanki (Dewas), Ashish Dube (Jabalpur), Sandhya Rai (Bhind), Sudhir Gupta (Mandsaur), Virendra Khateek (Tikamgarh), Gajendra Patel (Khargone), Rodmal Nagar (Rajgarh), Rajesh Mishra (Sidhi), Durgadas Uike (Betul), Nita Singh Chouhan (Ratlam), Bharat Singh Kushwaha (Gwalior), Gyaneshwar Patil (Khandwa), Himadri Singh (Shahdol), Faggan Singh Kulaste (Mandla), Lata Vankhede (Sagar), and Rahul Lodhi (Damoh).
The BJP secured 28 out of 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh in the 2019 elections and had won 27 seats in 2014.
