Bhopal, Oct 19 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced its candidates for the by-elections in two Assembly seats — Vijaypur and Budhni — in Madhya Pradesh.
Six-time MLA Ramniwas Rawat, who is the state forest minister in Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s cabinet, has been fielded from Vijaypur constituency in Sheopur district of Gwalior-Chambal region.
Rawat had won the last assembly election from Vijaypur in November 2023 as Congress candidate.
However, he resigned from the party and the state assembly. He joined the BJP during the Lok Sabha election.
The BJP has fielded Ramakant Bhargava from Budhni, the bastion of the party’s veteran leader and Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Bhargava is considered a loyalist to Union Minister Chouhan.
BJP veteran Shivraj Singh Chouhan won the Budhni seat four times between 2006 (bypoll) and 2023.
The seat was vacated after Shivraj Singh Chouhan won the Lok Sabha polls from Vidisha.
Notably, Budhni Assembly segment is part of Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency.
In the 2023 assembly elections, Shivraj Singh Chouhan won from Budhni by a margin of more than 1.05 lakh votes against Congress’ Vikram ‘Mastal’ Sharma, a TV actor.
The Congress won the Budhni seat last time in 1998.
According to political observers, this time, in the absence of former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan as a contestant, the Congress will try to wrest the seat from BJP, though it is not going to be easy.
The process of filing nominations began on Friday (October 18).
The Congress, however, is yet to name its candidates for the by-elections in Madhya Pradesh.
In the last Assembly elections held in November 2023, BJP has won 163 out of 230 assembly seats in the state, while the Congress was reduced to 66 against 114 it had won in 2018.
Of those 66, three Congress MLAs have already have resigned from the party and have joined the BJP, including Ramniwas Rawat.
–IANS
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