Big names who lost Assembly polls among BJP’s potential candidates for LS seats in Madhya Pradesh

BHOPAL: Big names who lost the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha elections in 2018 and 2023 are currently in the race for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tickets for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The names include former state minister and Ayodhya Ram Temple movement leader Jaibhan Singh Pavaiya. He is among the probables from the Gwalior seat, which he won in 1999. The former higher education minister Pavaiya, however, had lost the 2018 assembly polls for the Gwalior seat.

Others who are among the BJP’s potential choices for the Gwalior seat include sitting MP Vivek Shejwalkar and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is also a probable from his old Guna constituency.

At least three ex-state ministers who lost the previous assembly polls are also in contention for Lok Sabha candidature.

This includes ex-home minister Narottam Mishra, a probable candidate from Bhopal and Gwalior seats; former PWD minister Rampal Singh, who is in contention for the Vidisha seat; ex-minister Lal Singh Arya, from Bhind; and Ramkishore Kanware, a probable candidate from Balaghat.

Further, three-time former MLA from Mandsaur seat Yashpal Singh Sisodiya, who lost the assembly seat in 2023, is probable from Mandsaur LS seat, while former MLA Shardendu Tiwari, who defeated Congress veteran Ajay Singh ‘Rahul’ in the 2018 assembly polls but lost to him in 2023, is probable from Sidhi LS seat.

Fourth-time sitting MP from Satna seat Ganesh Singh is still probable from the same seat, despite having lost the 2023 assembly polls from the Satna assembly segment of his parliamentary constituency.

Similarly, Union minister and sixth-time sitting MP from Mandla-ST seat Faggan Singh Kulaste is among the probable candidates from the same seat, despite having lost the Niwas-ST assembly seat of his parliamentary constituency in the recent assembly polls.

Among the political biggies, former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is among the probable candidates from the Vidisha seat, which he had won five times in the past, besides the Bhopal and Chhindwara seats.

State BJP president VD Sharma is among the probable from Khajuraho as well as Bhopal seats, while Vidhan Sabha Speaker and ex-union minister Narendra Singh Tomar is a probable from Morena seat (he won in 2009 and 2019).

Senior leader and state minister Kailash Vijayvargiya is also among the three probable candidates from the Indore seat, where sitting MP Shankar Lalwani and city’s mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava are the two other candidates.

First-time MLA from Sidhi seat Riti Pathak is among the frontrunners from Sidhi LS seat, which she won in 2014 and 2019.

According to state BJP sources, the party is likely to declare candidates first for the five seats—Damoh, Sidhi, Hoshangabad, Jabalpur and Morena—which became vacant last year after their sitting MPs won assembly polls.

Ex-CM and Congress stalwart Kamal Nath’s citadel, Chhindwara, where his son Nakul Nath is the current MP, may also be among those seats where the BJP will declare candidates early next month.

In the 2019 LS polls, the BJP had won 28 out of the 29 LS seats, while Congress could just hold on to Chhindwara.

Meanwhile, the top brass of the state BJP, including state party chief VD Sharma and CM Mohan Yadav, were present at the meeting with the party’s top brass in Delhi on Wednesday, a day before the party’s central election committee (CEC) reportedly meets in the national capital to decide the first list of candidates for the coming national elections.

Sources within the state BJP claimed that the party may opt for fresh faces, with the average age being around 50 years, particularly on Bhopal, Indore, Tikamgarh-SC, Khandwa, Rewa, Mandsaur, Ratlam, Balaghat-ST, Sagar, Vidisha, Dhar-ST, Rajgarh, Satna and Mandla-ST seats.