SP announces third list of two candidates for MP assembly polls

BHOPAL: The Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced its third list of two candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh assembly elections amid strained ties with its INDIA grouping ally Congress over the formation of an alliance in the state.

The SP brought out the list on Thursday night. With this, it has announced 33 candidates for the November 17 polls to the 230-member assembly in the BJP-governed state.

The Congress released its first list of 144 candidates on Sunday and the second on Thursday night. It has to announce just one candidate to take the number of its nominees to 230.

According to insiders from both parties, the Congress had apparently agreed to leave six seats for SP in MP under a truck but that did not materialise.

In its third list, SP has named Rajendra Prasad Patel and Pushpendra Kumar Ahirwar from Churhat in Sidhi district and Chandla (SC reserved) constituency in Chhatarpur district respectively.

The filing nomination papers will start from October 21.

On Thursday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said his party leaders would not have answered calls from the Congress for a meeting in Madhya Pradesh had he known that the opposition INDIA bloc was confined to the national level.

“….the manner in which the Samajwadi Party was treated, they (Congress) will get to see the same treatment here (in Uttar Pradesh),” he said.

In the 2018 Madhya Pradesh elections, the SP had won one seat – Bijawar in Bundelkhand region – and finished second on five, securing 1.3 per cent votes in alliance with the tribal Gondwana Gantantra Party.