Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj leaves for Delhi to finalise candidates for assembly by-polls

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday left for Delhi to finalise candidates for the 28 assembly constituencies which are going to by-polls on November 3.

Mr Chouhan was scheduled to meet Central BJP leaders to finalise the candidates for the November 3 assembly by-polls in the state which may prove crucial for survival of his government.

BJP has earlier in principle decided to re-nominate the 25 ex-Congress MLAs who have resigned from the house and the grand old party leading to collapse of Kamal Nath government in March this year, from their respective assembly seats in the ensuing by-elections.

However, the party was yet to finalise candidates for three other assembly constituencies, Joura, Agar and Byabra, leading to the delay in the release of the candidates’ list.

By-elections in these 3 assembly seats were necessitated following the death of sitting MLAs.

“State election committee of the party has recommended 2 names each for the three assembly seats to the Central election committee of party for finalization of candidates for these constituencies”, a senior BJP leader here said.

Filing of nomination for the assembly by-elections would commence from October nine.

Congress has already announced its candidates for 24 assembly seats. Similarly, BSP has come out with a list of its candidates for 18 seats.

Both the parties are expected to declare candidates in the rest poll-bound assembly constituencies in a day or two.

While BJP has strength of 107 in the 230-member MP assembly, Congress has 88 MLAs.