Congress has declared candidates for all 7 seats in Bhopal district. The party has given a ticket to Atif Aqil, son of Bhopal North MLA Aqif Akil, in the second list.
Confidence has been shown in PC Sharma by giving him a ticket from South-West for the second time. BJP has not yet announced the candidate from South West seat of Bhopal.
Ravindra Sahu has been fielded against Krishna Gaur from BJP's traditional seat Govindpura. Naresh Gyanchandani has been given another chance from Huzoor seat. He will face BJP's Rameshwar Sharma.
In the first list, Congress had announced the names of MLA Arif Masood from Bhopal Central, Manoj Shukla from Narela and Jayashree Harikiran from Berasia. BJP has also declared candidates on all the seats except South-West.
Caste equation has been seen among 7 Congress candidates. Among the Congress candidates, two Brahmins, two Muslims, two OBCs and one SC have been given tickets. For the first time, BJP has given a chance to two Brahmin candidates in Bhopal.
At the same time, one ticket each has been given to OBC, Rajput, Vaishya and SC categories. In Bhopal, BJP has not yet declared a candidate for the South-West Assembly seat of the capital. Now everyone's eyes are on this seat. It will be interesting to see which category of candidates BJP gives a chance from here.
Congress has given ticket to former district president Ravindra Sahu from Govindpura seat. He is considered close to former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh. He will face BJP MLA Krishna Gaur. Some Congress leaders were in favor of a woman candidate from this seat over Krishna and had put forward the name of Congress state spokesperson Deepti Singh. Rambabu's name was also in the panel from this seat, but the final decision was in the name of Ravindra Sahu. Sources claim that Ravindra has been given the ticket on the basis of caste equation. The number of OBC voters is high in this seat.
Congress has given ticket to Atif Aqil, son of former minister Arif Aqil, from Bhopal North seat. Arif Aqil had refused to contest elections due to health reasons. His contest is against BJP candidate former mayor Alok Sharma.
Sharma's name was announced by BJP in the first list on September 17 itself. Apart from rivals, displeasure of loved ones will also be a big challenge for Atif. Actually, his uncle and Arif Aqil's brother Aamir Aqil was also claiming this seat. Recently he had also organized a big rally. AAP party has given ticket to Saud Rauf from this seat. This seat has been held by Congress since 1998.
Congress has fielded Naresh Gyanchandani to contest against BJP's Rameshwar Sharma from Huzur seat. Gyanchandani had lost the election from Rameshwar in the last election. Jitendra Daga, who left BJP and joined Congress, was considered a contender from this seat, but the party has once again expressed confidence in Gyanchandani. He is considered close to Digvijay Singh. One reason for giving him ticket is the large vote bank of Sindhi community in this seat.
Congress has once again trusted former minister PC Sharma. He has been given a ticket from the South-West seat. Congress leader Sanjeev Saxena was contesting from this seat. Congress sources say that this seat was kept in the first list due to some complications but, PC Sharma's name was approved in the meeting held in Delhi on Thursday. BJP has not yet declared its candidate from this seat.
Rahul Kothari, Dr. Abhijeet Deshmukh along with Surendranath Singh are voting from here. But, due to the way many leaders in BJP who lost the last election have been given tickets again, Umanskar Gupta's name is being mentioned ahead.
