Bhopal: Nomination Withdrawal Over, Many Rebels Still In Contest

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Thursday was the last date for withdrawal of nominations. Persuasions by several senior leaders of both the key parties failed to pacify many rebels to keep away from contesting the election.

Harshwardhan Singh Chouhan, son of former state president of the BJP, the late Nand Kumar Singh Chouhan, resigned from the party. He is contesting the election as an independent candidate. Although Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and national co- organisational general secretary Shivprakash tried to convince Harshwardhan not to contest the polls, yet he stuck to his guns.

Similarly former legislator from Mhow Antar Singh Darbar resigned from the party. None of the Congress leaders like the candidate given a ticket by the party from this constituency, Darbar said. Besides these two candidates, Congress’s former legislator from Gotegaon Shekhar Choudhary is contesting as an independent candidate.

Rajendra Singh Solanki from Badnagar, former MP from Alote Prenchand Guddu, former legislator from Seoni Malwa Om Raghuwanshi and Ameer Aqueel from Bhopal North are in the fray.

They refused to take back their nominations, despite persuasions by the senior leaders of the Congress. Several BJP rebels – like Nandram Kushwaha and Kamleshwar Deolia from Niwari, Bihari solanki from Sheopur, Pratap Singh Arya from Mahidpur, Lokendra from Nagda – are contesting the polls.

Apart from the rebels, candidates from the BSP and the SP are in the fray in many constituencies.

Baghel, Medha, Daga take back nominations There are a few leaders of the BJP and the Congress who took back their nominations on Thursday. BJP leaders who pulled out of the contest were former minister Ranjana Baghel from Manawar, Ramesh Malviya from alote, Pannabai Prajapati from Mangawan, Akhilesh Shah from Indore-3, Shivraj Shah from Mandla, Bijendra Singh Malaheda from Manasa and former legislator Laljiram Malviya.

The Congress leaders who withdrew nominations were Javier Medha from Jhabua, former MLA from Huzur Jitendra Daga, former minister Kaushalya Gotiya, Rajkumar ahir from Jawad and Bhuvan Vikram Singh from Bijawar.