Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Of the 144 names announced by Congress in its first list on Sunday, six are from Indore district. Names in three seats have been kept on hold.
The Congress has declared its candidates for Indore I, Indore II, Indore IV, Rau, Sanwer, and Depalpur.
There were no major surprises in the list. All three sitting MLAs- Sanjay Shukla from Indore I, Jitu Patwari from Rau, and Vishal Patel from Depalpur have been repeated.
The party has fielded three new faces on the other three seats including the two seats (Indore-II and Indore-IV) which are considered bastions of BJP while a young face has been fielded in Sanwer against minister Tulsi Silawat.
Like BJP, Congress has not declared candidates from Indore-III, Indore V, and Mhow where there are multiple strong candidates.
Pointers
1.Congress fielded all three sitting MLAs
2. Party has given tickets to three OBC candidates, 1 SC candidate
3. The three seats on hold are Indore–III, Indore-V, and Mhow
4. Deepak Joshi ‘Pintu’ and Arvind Bagdi are in race for the ticket from Indore-II, Satyanarayan Patel and Swapnil Kothari from Indore-V, and Antar Singh Darbar, Sadashiv Yadav and Kailash Pandey from Mhow.
Indore1
Sanjay Shukla v/s Kailash Vijayvargiya
Sanjay Shukla is a sitting MLA from Indore-I and the party has repeated him to give a fight to BJP’s heavyweight Kailash Vijayvargiya. The seat has become an issue of prestige for both parties as well as for the candidates. Vijayvargiya has never lost an election and he will try and maintain his unblemished record, while Shukla to his credit wrested the seat from BJP after 15 years by defeating Sudarshan Gupta with a margin of 8,163 votes.
Kailash Vijayvargiya v/s Sanjay Shukla |
Indore 2
Chintu Choukse v/s Ramesh Mendola
Congress has fielded Indore Municipal Corporation’s leader of opposition Chintu Choukse against BJP’s three-time MLA Ramesh Mendola. Choukse and his team had given a good fight to BJP in IMC elections and bagged several corporators’ seats in the BJP stronghold. In 2018, Mendola had defeated Congress party's Mohan Sengar (who switched to BJP in 2020) with a record 71,011 votes.
Chintu Choukse v/s Ramesh Mendola |
Indore 4
Raja Mandhwani v/s Malini Gaud
Congress has played the ‘Sindhi’ card on the seat and fielded Raja Mandhwani against BJP’s Malini Gaud. Indore IV aka BJP’s 'Ayodhya' has been an impenetrable fortress of the saffron party for last 33 years. Congress has repeated its strategy of fieling Sindhi candidates to woo the dominant Sindhi voters of the constituency. In 2018, Gaud defeated Congress’ Surjeet Singh Chaddha by 49,090 votes.
Raja Mandhwani v/s Malini Gaud |
Rau
Jitu Patwari v/s Madhu Verma
Congress has fielded former minister and MLA Jitu Patwati from Rau and he takes on Madhu Verma. The contest will be a repeat of the last elections where Patwari defeated Verma by a margin of 5703 votes. Patwari has won the seat twice in a row, but the low margin of defeat last time gives Verma hope.
Jitu Patwari v/s Madhu Verma |
Depalpur
Vishal Patel v/s Manoj Patel
Like Indore –I and Rau, Congress has fielded its sitting MLA Vishal Patel. BJP has also repeated Manoj Patel from the seat who was defeated by Vishal in 2018 with a margin of 9,044 votes. Depalpur has a record of not electing the same candidate twice and it remains to be seen if Vishal can break the jinx.
Vishal Patel v/s Manoj Patel |
Sanwer
Reena Bourasi Setiya v/s Tulsi Silawat
Congress has given ticket to greenhorn Reena Bourasi Setiya to give a fight to the sitting MLA and minister Tulsi Silawat. Silawat had won the seat in 2018 on a Congress ticket but he switched to BJP in 2020. He had won the by-poll against Reena’s father Premchand ‘Guddu’.
Reena Bourasi Setiya v/s Tulsi Silawat |
