MP: BJP's Latest Candidate List Retains Cabinet Ministers Among 57 Names Of Incumbent MLAs, Chouhan Gets Budhni

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released another list of candidates for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, scheduled for 17 November, on Monday (9 October).

The list contains 57 names, including that of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, which takes the count of the total declared BJP candidates to 136 in the 230-seat legislative assembly.

When Chouhan's name did not appear in earlier lists, he was mocked by Congress leaders who claimed that he might not get a ticket, owing to many heavyweights being fielded by the BJP.

However, now Chouhan is set to contest from Budhni, a constituency in Sehore district which he has represented since 2006. Also, the BJP has retained this seat since 1985.

Notably, this list contains names of only the incumbent MLAs including cabinet ministers Gopal Bhargava, Narottam Mishra, Kamal Patel, Meena Singh, Kunwar Vijay Shah, Jagdish Deora and Govind Singh Rajput.

Other ministers on the list are Bhupendra Singh, Brijendra Pratap Singh, Vishvas Sarang, Omprakash Saklecha, Arvind Singh Bhadauria, Premsingh Patel, Mohan Yadav, Tulsiram Silavat and Dr Prabhuram Chaudhary.

As was rumoured, Yashodhara Raje Scindia may not contest the elections as her name did not emerge in the list with other cabinet ministers. Similarly, another cabinet minister Usha Thakur was also not named in this list.