Son shine? The question is doing the rounds in political circles in the state capital amid speculations of former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's son, Kartikeya, being fielded as the BJP nominee for the Budhni Vidhan Sabha by-election.

The Budhni assembly seat, a stronghold of the Chouhans, fell vacant after the Union Agriculture Minister was elected from the Vidisha parliamentary segment in the 2024 general elections. Besides the tribal-dominated assembly seat of Vijaypur, the contest for the Budhni constituency is being widely regarded as a must-watch battle between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Opposition Congress. Budhni has remained a BJP bastion and served as the chief ministerial seat since Shivraj Singh Chouhan successfully contested after being appointed chief minister in November 2005.

Chouhan resigned after being elected as a member of the 10th Lok Sabha a year later.

Both major political parties started preparations for the by-election nearly a month ago. While Kartikeya Singh is being regarded as a strong contender from the BJP side, the Congress is mulling several names to put up a challenge in the constituency.

Without giving away much, BJP insiders say that there are possibilities of the young Kartikeya being fielded from the area, which has seen massive development during his father's reign as chief minister. They say that Chouhan continues to hold sway in the state, as he managed to secure a surefire victory for his friend Alok Sharma by ensuring his candidature from the Bhopal parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.

To his credit, party sources say Kartikeya has done a lot of work in the constituency with his father, and even after his father became Union Minister, so his candidature could be considered by the party. However, factually, the state unit of the BJP has already sidelined Shivraj after he was forced to quit as CM.

After winning the Vidisha Lok Sabha election with record votes, when he reached there for the first time, a huge crowd gathered to welcome him. However, the state unit of the party did not release his visit programme and did not issue any press release regarding this.

On other occasions, too, Shivraj's Madhya Pradesh tour programmes have not been issued to media outlets.

State BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal informs that candidate selection is the domain of the party's Central Committee and maintains that it would proceed smoothly.

Regarding the election preparations, he claimed that the saffron party has already knocked on every door in the constituency and thus no extensive efforts are required."The BJP will emerge victorious with a margin of over one lakh votes. Our party workers are active at each booth," he claimed.Exuding confidence in a win, Agarwal further stated that the Congress may field anyone, but the BJP will elect one MLA from Budhni and one minister from Vijaypur.On the other hand, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari has visited all the blocks of Budhni constituency four times so far. He has conducted tiffin meetings at the blocks. A meeting of the party workers from the area was convened at PCC headquarters in Bhopal. Congress sources say that there are around a dozen local leaders in contention for the party ticket. However, the state-level committee, comprising the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Umang Singhar, and former PCC Chief Arun Yadav, will decide the candidate. The Congress candidate in the 2023 assembly elections, Vikram Mastal, had lost by a margin of over one lakh votes. He had lost his own polling booth; however, he continues to be in ticket reckoning this time around as well.

Listing out ticket hopefuls, Congress sources say the names of Rajkumar Patel, Vikram Mastal, Mahesh Rajput, Anand Jat, Ajay Patel, and Arjun Arya are being considered.