The ruling BJP has sprung a surprise by fielding three Union ministers along with four other sitting MPs, including Narendra Singh Tomar, for the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. The second list of 39 candidates was released on September 25 hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Bhopal. The list also includes the name of BJP’s national General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya from Indore-1. Vijayvargiya will be contesting the Vidhan Sabha polls a decade after he won the Mhow seat for the second time in 2013. On the other hand, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar will contest Assembly elections after two decades. He had last won Assembly polls from Gwalior for the second straight time in 2003.
The list of 39 candidates released by the party includes the names of three Union ministers — Minister of State for Food Processing Industries and Jal Shakti, Prahlad Singh Patel, from Narsinghpur; Agriculture Minister and the party’s state election management committee head Narendra Singh Tomar from Dimni-Morena; and Minister of State for Rural Development and Steel,Fagan Singh Kulaste from Niwas). Four other Lok Sabha members — Ganesh Singh from Satna, Riti Pathak from Sidhi, Rakesh Singh from Jabalpur-West, and Uday Pratap Singh from Gadarwara — are in the fray for upcoming Assembly elections.
The move to field these heavyweight candidates seems to be the party’s strategy to keep the race for the CM’s post open, given that the BJP has not announced any name for the top post yet. So by fielding key leaders as candidates in the assembly elections, is the BJP trying to fulfill the aspirations of other regional leaders or is it a signal to Shivraj Singh Chouhan that the race for Chief Minister’s face is wide open? By placing key leaders into the election field, the party is trying to solidify its candidates portfolios in the upcoming elections. But besides this, by naming key leaders, is the party trying to indicate that the race for Chief Minister’s face is wide open, or is it just about fulfilling the expectations of the regional leaders?
Well, there has been no official word from the party on its chief minister’s candidate so far. The party is yet to announce all the candidates for the upcoming elections including the seat of Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Chouhan is the party’s longest-serving chief minister. But is he being sidelined in Madhya Pradesh? That’s the question many are asking after the chief minister’s name did not appear on the BJP’s second candidate list for the upcoming Assembly polls. Elections for the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly are scheduled to be held in or before November this year. In the 230-member assembly, the ruling BJP holds 128 seats, while the opposition Congress has 98 members.
