 "BJP, BJP logo")
In its second list of 39 candidates, released on Monday evening, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced it would field seven of its sitting Lok Sabha members, including three Union ministers, in the forthcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls as it strives to beat anti-incumbency in the state.
In its second list, the BJP announced that Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Singh Patel, and Faggan Singh Kulaste, along with party national general secretary Kailash Vijayavargiya, will contest the forthcoming MP polls. The party also fielded four other of its Lok Sabha members from the state - Riti Pathak, Ganesh Singh, Rao Uday Pratap Singh and Rakesh Singh. They will contest Assembly seats falling within their respective Lok Sabha constituencies.
The BJP has fielded Nathan Shah from the Junnardeo seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Shah lost to the Congress party's Nakul Nath, the son of its chief ministerial candidate Kamal Nath, from the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat in 2019. The BJP has fielded Vivek Bunty Sahu from the Chhindwara Assembly seat, which has Kamal Nath as its sitting legislator.
The list was discussed at the meeting of the party's central election committee, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders attended, on 13 September in the national capital. Sources said the imprint of the central leadership, which has taken the reins of the party's MP poll campaign into its hands, was evident in fielding some of the party's top leaders in the state.
Union Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister Tomar will contest from Dimani, a seat in his Lok Sabha constituency of Morena; Patel from Narsingpur; Kulaste from Niwas; Pathak from Sidhi; Rakesh Singh from Jabalpur (West); Uday Pratap Singh from Gadarwara; and Ganesh Singh from Satna. Vijayavargiya will contest from the Indore-1 seat. Imarti Devi, a former minister in the Kamal Nath and Shivraj Singh Chouhan governments, who lost the bypoll after switching to the BJP from the Congress, will contest from Dabra.
The BJP had released its first list of 39 candidates on 17 August, as part of its effort to announce candidates even before the Election Commission declares the polling schedule. Madhya Pradesh has 230 Assembly seats.
