MP Election 2023 Congress' 1st List: 69 MLAs Including Jitu, Jaivardhan & Arif Masood Retain Tickets, Ex-CM Nath To Fight From Chhindwara; Raje Vs Imarti In Dabra

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Ending its suspense, the Congress on Sunday-- first day Navratri, announced its first list of candidates for Madhya Pradesh. The list has candidate names for 144 assembly seats of total 230. These 144 seats include-- 47 general, 39 OBC, 30 ST, 22 SC and 6 Minority seats. A total of 19 women were fielded. As many as 69 sitting MLA got tickets.

Congress announced former chief minister and PCC chief Kamal Nath from his fort--Chhindwara assembly constituency.

Congress' Young Brigade Back To Work

Former chief minister Digvijaya Singh's son Jaivardhan Singh has been fielded from Raghogarh seat. He was a cabinet minister in the 18-month Nath government.

Former sports minister in Nath-cabinet and Jaivardhan's good friend Jitu Patwari too retained his ticket from Rau (Indore) seat. Patwari has emerged as one of the frontline leaders of the state Congress in recent five years. He is highly active on social media, constantly questioning the government. Patwari staged several protest rallies and went strong over Patwari Recruitment Scam.

Hotshot Battles

Congress fielded Vikram Mastal-- actor famous for playing Lord Hanuman's role in Anand Sagar 2008 TV Show, in Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's bastion Budhni. Shivraj has been winning this seat for 17 years now.

Congress pinned hopes on Sanjay Shukla to defeat BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya from Indore-1.

From minority-dominated Bhopal Central, Congress has relied on their current MLA Arif Masood. Masood will contest against BJP's Dhruv Narayan Singh.

Raje Retains Ticket, Viral Video In Vain

MLA Suresh Raje will be contesting polls from Dabra (SC) against Imarti Devi. There were speculations that this time he might not get the ticket after a video showing Raje in a compromised position had gone viral. Raje, however, called it a morphed video. Later, in the same week, a purported voice recording of BJP's Imarti Devi surface, where she was heard saying, "Ask for money, or else make hi video viral."

Similarly, Congress fielded Manoj Shukla against state medical education minister Narela. There were speculations that this time Sarang might not get the ticket. But finally, his name was announced in the fourth list. It's worth seeing if BJP has done the right thing to retain his ticket!