Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls: BJP releases first list of 39 candidates

The announcement comes a day after the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) reviewed the party's poll preparations in the state

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday released its first list of 39 candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. This comes a day after the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) reviewed the party's poll preparations in the state.

Here is the first list of BJP candidates and their constituencies for Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections:

Sarla Vijendra Rawat - Sabalgarh constituency

Adal Singh Kansana - Sumawali constituency

Lal Singh Arya - Gohad (SC) constituency

Preetam Lodhi - Pichhore constituency

Priyanka Meena - Chachoura constituency

Jagannath Singh Raghuvanshi - Chanderi constituency

Veerendra Singh Lambardar - Banda constituency

Kamakhya Pratap Singh - Maharajpur constituency

Lalita Yadav - Chhatarpur constituency

Lakhan Patel - Pathariya constituency

Rajesh Kumar Verma - Gunnaor (SC) constituency

Surendra Singh Gaharwar - Chitrakoot constituency

Herrasingh Shyam - Pushprajgarh (ST) constituency

Dhirendra Singh - Barwara (ST) constituency

Neeraj Thakur - Bargi constituency

Anchal Sonkar - Jabalpur Purba (SC) constituency

Omprakash Dhurwey - Shahpura (ST) constituency

Vijay Anand Marawi - Bichhiya (ST) constituency

Bhagat Singh Netam - Baihar (ST) constituency

Rajkumar Karrahe - Lanji constituency

Kamal Maskole - Barghat (ST) constituency

Mahendra Nagesh - Gotegaon (SC) constituency

Nanabhau Mohod - Saunsar constituency

Prakash Uikey - Pandhurna (ST) constituency

Chandrashekhar Deshmukh - Multai constituency

Mahendra Singh Chouhan - Bhainsdehi (ST) constituency

Alok Sharma - Bhopal Uttar constituency

Dhruv Narayan Singh - Bhopal Madhya constituency

Rajesh Sonkar - Sonkatch (SC) constituency

Rajkumar Mev - Maheshwar (SC) constituency

Atmaram Patel - Kasrawad constituency

Nagar Singh Chouhan - Alirajpur (ST) constituency

Bhanu Bhuriya - Jhabua (ST) constituency

Nirmala Bhuriya - Petiawad (ST) constituency

Jaydeep Patel - Kukshi (ST) constituency

Kalu Singh Thakur - Dharampuri (ST) constituency

Madhu Verma - Rau constituency

Tarachand Goyal - Tarana (SC) constituency

Satish Malviya - Ghatiya (SC) constituency

In 2018, the Congress emerged as the largest party in the state by winning 114 seats in the 230-member house in Madhya Pradesh, while the BJP had won 109 seats. The grand old party formed the government under Kamal Nath. However, the Congress government was reduced to a minority after a rebellion by Jyotiraditya Scinda led to several Congress MLAs resigning. Kamal Nath resigned before the floor test and the government collapsed. Shivraj Singh Chouhan was re-elected as the chief minister on Madhya Pradesh.

The BJP also released its first list of 21 candidates for the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections.

Five states - Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Mizoram - will be going to polls in November-December this year. Out of the five states, the BJP is in power only in Madhya Pradesh and is waging an intense campaign to oust the Congress government in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, as well as the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana.