With the Congress releasing its second lists of candidates on Sunday for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the party has set aside speculations of internal rife in the State cadre led by heavyweights and old timers Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh and the new generation leader Jyotiraditya Scindia. The party has struck a fine balance between supporters of Nath, Singh and Scindia.
Last week, during the discussion on finalising the first set of candidates, Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia had a huge argument and the Central Election Committee meeting had to be stopped midway which also had presence of Kamal Nath.
The dispute was over the selection of candidates and both the leaders last Thursday walked out of the party’s war-room in national Capital after heated exchanges with Scindia. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi thereafter appointed a three-member committee led by Ahmed Patel to resolve the issue.
Two-time Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has a long-standing rivalry with Scindia leading to factionalism within the party in the state, where it has been out of power for 15 years. With the Shivraj Singh Chouhan governing the state since 2003, Congress is hoping to take a lead on the anti-incumbency factor.
Congress which has released a total of 171 candidates of the 230 member assembly, it has on expected lines, renominated 46 MLAs while dropping Govardhan Upadhyay, Shakuntala Khatik and Manoj Kumar, sitting MLAs from Sironj, Kerera and Kotma respectively. They have been replaced by Ashok Tyagi, Jaswant Jatav and Sunil Saraf.
Elections in the state are due on November 28 while the results will be declared on December 11 alongwith the results of Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh and Mizoram where polls will be held simultaneously.
The names of Congress state unit chief Kamal Nath and poll campaign committee in-charge Jyotiradtiya Scindia are not on the either list. They are touted to be frontrunners for the chief minister’s post if the party wins. The list of 155 names, released late Saturday night, includes that of 21 women and 24 fresh faces. The remaining 75 candidates will be announced during the next couple of days.
Interestingly, the Congress has nominated Dr Hiralal Alawa, convener of the tribal political outfit Jai Adivasi Yuva Shakti (JAYS), from the Manawar seat in Dhar district. Alawa, a former assistant professor at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences, was unable for comment.
The Congress-JAYS were in talks for an alliance, especially in the Nimar-Malwa region where the BJP has a formidable following. Former chief minister Digvijay Singh’s son Jaivardhan, a sitting MLA, brother Lakshman Singh and nephew Priyavrat Singh have been given tickets from Raghogarh, Chachoda and Khilchipur seats respectively.
Similarly, Scindia loyalists Hemant Katare and KK Singh have been nominated from Ater and Jaora seats respectively. Four former MPs, comprising former Union minister Suresh Pachouri, Vijaylaxmi Sadho, Sajjan Singh Verma and Surendra Singh Thakur have been nominated from Bhojpur, Maheshwar, Sonkuth and Sehore respectively. Sanjay Sharma, Padma Shukla and Abhay Mishra, who recently joined the Congress after leaving the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh, have been given tickets as well.