The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday, 17 August announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The first list includes 39 seats out of 230 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh and 21 out of 90 assembly seats in Chhattisgarh. Elections are scheduled in both states in November this year.
The BJP has fielded a Member of Parliament from Durg Lok Sabha Vijay Baghel against his relative and CM Bhupesh Baghel from Patan assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh.
In Madhya Pradesh, the 39 seats where candidates were declared, are mostly seats that the BJP lost in 2018 as well as 2013. Among them 14 candidates had contested and lost last time.
The BJP has also announced candidates for two of the seats in Bhopal district, fielding Dhruv Narayan Singh from Bhopal Central and Alok Sharma from Bhopal North.
Preetam Singh Lodhi, who was axed from MP BJP in 2022 over his remarks on Brahmins, has been fielded from Pichhore assembly constituency. He had returned to the party in March 2023.
The candidates' names were approved during the meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) on Wednesday, 16 August.
The meeting was presided over by BJP president JP Nadda, and was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh and other senior leaders.
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