Bhopal: Even as the ruling BJP has announced its first list of 39 candidates for Madhya Pradesh assembly polls on August 17, the rival Congress continues to grapple with the 'problem of plenty' while doing so.
An unthinkably huge number of more than 4,500 ticket aspirants posed challenge before the party high command which is finding it difficult to finalise the list of candidates who will contest in the 230 seats. The BJP’s tally is 109 in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly while the Congress’s is 114. For Congress, picking up candidates for 40 out of 66 seats where the party traditionally loses is not be a problem. The intra party rivalry is posing hurdle for high profile seats. More than 12 leaders are throwing their hats for each seat. Bhopal's Narela, Govindpura and Berasia seats have more than two strong contenders. The first list will be released after September 2.
The Congress has completed preparations to decide the names of the candidates for about 130 seats. Out of this, former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, who is facing an uphill task, has visited 66 assembly consituencies. He has prepared an interim report with emntion of the ground situation of the party, efficiency, acceptance of the claimants at the local level and their popularity. The list was submitted to the state Congress President Kamal Nath. State Congress has prepared survey report on all the seats including these 66 seats. The first meeting of the Congress Screening Committee is going to be held in Bhopal on September 2 to decide on names of the candidates.
Screening committee chairman Jitendra Singh, state in-charge general secretary Randeep Surjewala, state Congress president Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh and all other committee members will be present in the meeting. It is being told that the survey report of the State Congress and AICC for 66 seats will be placed before the committee first. Based on this, panels will be prepared on every seat. The final decision on the names of the candidates will be taken by the Parliament Board. The party has decided not to give tickets to leaders who have lost three elections. Young faces will be given a chance in their place. Preference will be given to the local candidate. Apart from this, the party can also field turncoats, who have come from BJP to Congress once they are judged to be fit popularity and acceptance wise.
For this, the names of these leaders will also be discussed with the concerned District Congress Committee before final decision is taken. Significantly, in the past, many BJP leaders have joined the Congress. Among them, former CM Kailash Joshi's son and former minister Deepak Joshi, Samandar Patel from Javad, Yadvendra Singh Yadav, son of former MLA Deshraj Singh, Baijnath Yadav, former MLA Kunwar Dhruv Pratap Singh, former MLA Radhelal Baghel are prominent. All of them are willing to contest elections on Congress ticket. According to senior Congress leader Sajjan Singh Verma, the party will follow the normal process of selecting candidates. The Selection Committee will place the names of the candidates before the Screening Committee. The names will be finalised at the Screening Committee meeting.
