MP polls: Cong releases 1st list of 144 candidates ; fields Kamal Nath from Chhindwara

NEW DELHI: Congress on Sunday released the first list of 144 candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, fielding state unit president and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath from Chhindwara.

The list includes prominent names such as former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, Former Minister of Higher Education of Madhya Pradesh Jitu Patwari, Jaivardhan Singh, Member of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly Vijayalakshmi Sadho and Member of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly Lakshman Singh.

The state will go to polls on November 17 while counting of votes will take place on December 3. Former chief minister Digvijaya Singh's son Jaivardhan Singh has been fielded from the Raghigath seat.

The announcement came after the party's Central Election Committee met to finalise candidates at the AICC office in the national capital. Notably, the Kamal Nath government collapsed in March 2021 when 22 sitting Congress MLAs resigned under the leadership of Jyotiraditya Scindia and joined the BJP. Apart from Madhya Pradesh, the party has also declared candidates for 30 seats in Chhattisgarh and 55 in Telangana.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already announced candidates for 136 out of 230 assembly constituencies in the state. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will contest from his traditional Budhni seat. The Congress is bidding to wrest power from the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, with Rahul Gandhi and his sister and the party's national general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, already holding a clutch of rallies in the state. Madhya Pradesh is scheduled to undergo assembly polls on November 17.

Through the polls, the state will elect legislators from 230 Assembly constituencies. The election will be conducted in one phase in the state and the counting will take place on December 3.