The Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday announced the names of candidates for by-elections to be held in three Assembly constituencies of the state on August 21. There had been only a couple of instances when the Congress had come out with its candidates before the BJP.

Agar (SC), Vijayraghvgarh and Bahoriband constituencies would go for by-polls on August 21 while the counting of votes would be held on August 25.

The party has fielded Shurabhsingh Sisodia from Bahoriband, Rajkumar Gore is party’s candidate from Agar while Brijendra Mishra is party’s candidate from Vijayraghavgarh. The ruling BJP is yet to announce its candidates.

Vijayraghavgarh is a prestigious seat for the Congress as the BJP is expected to field mining baron Sanjay Pathak from here, who is the son of former minister Satyendra Pathak from this seat. Pathak is a former Congress MlA who had switched to BJP just before the 2014 parliamentary election and the election has been necessitated on this seat due to his resignation.

Brijendra Mishra the Congress candidate from Vijayraghavgarh is a local leader and has remained municipality chairman in the past.

Congress candidate Surabhsingh Sisodia from Bahoriband had switched over to Congress from BSP after losing last elections with a margin of around 10,000 votes. With the presence of SC votes in the area, Sisodia seems to be a strong contender.

Agar also seems to be a wrong choice in terms of candidates for Congress which has banked upon Youth Congress leader Rajkumar Gore by overlooking aspiration of Congress leader Om Bharti who has strong hold in the area.

The last date of making nominations for these by-polls would be August 2, scrutiny of nominations would be held on August 4, last date for withdrawal of nominations by the candidates would be August 6, polling would be held on August 21, counting of ballots would be held on August 25 and the election process should come to end before August 30.