Congress flag.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Congress on Sunday unveiled its first list of candidates for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana Assembly elections next month, fielding big guns like Kamal Nath, Bhupesh Baghel and TS Singhdeo and four sitting MPs including A Revanth Reddy and Deepak Baij.
The party has chosen in its first, which was released on the first day of Navaratri, 144 out of 230 candidates in Madhya Pradesh, 30 out of 90 in Chhattisgarh and 55 out of 119 in Telangana where four seats are likely to go to CPI(M) and CPI. List for Rajasthan and Mizoram are expected this week.
All the five sitting MLAs in Telangana are in the fray along with all the three sitting MPs – Revanth, N Uttam Kumar and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy. All state party chiefs Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh), Revanth Reddy (Telangana) and Baij (Chhattisgarh) are in the fray.
In Madhya Pradesh, 69 are sitting MLAs while seven Congress lawmakers in 144 seats have been denied tickets.
Kamal Nath will fight from his home-turf Chhindwara while the party has fielded party MP Digvijaya Singh's son Jaivardhan Singh from Raghogarh and brother Lakshman Singh from Chachoura in Guna. Leader of Opposition Dr Govind Singh has been fielded from Lahar.
Congress also chose Vikram Mastal, who played the role of Lord Hanuman in a TV serial, against Madhya Pradesh Chief MinisterShivraj Singh Chouhan. Former BJP MP Bodh Singh Bhagat, who switched sides, will fight from Katangi while prominent Congress leaders who also found space in the first list also included Ajay Singh (Churhat), Vijay Laxmi Sadho (Maheshwar) and Jitu Patwari (Rau).
In Chhattisgarh, 22 out of 30 candidates, including all 12 Ministers, are sitting MLAs and eight have been denied seats. One of the sitting seats, Chitrakoot, went to Baij while the other Dantewada went to K Chavindra Mahendra Karma, in place of his mother Devati Karma. Then Opposition leader Mahendra Karma was killed in a naxal attack that wiped out the entire Congress leadership in 2013.
The first list includes all the big names in Chhattisgarh politics. Besides Baij, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel will fight from Patan while Deputy Chief Minister T S Singh Deo (Ambikapur), Tamradhwaj Sahu (Durg Rural), Speaker Charan Das Mahant (Sakti) amd Mohan Markam (Kondagaon-ST).
In Telangana where the party expects to put up a good show, the party is fielding all its sitting MLAs, including Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka from Madhira.
Revanth, state party chief and MP, and Venkat Reddy are returning for a fight in the state Assembly after losing the 2018 polls from Kodangal and Nalgonda respectively. Uttam Kumar, who resigned as Huzurnagar MLA after winning Lok Sabha polls, will return to his old constituency while his wife Nalamada Padmavathi Reddy from Kodad from where she lost.
BRS MLA Mynampally Hanumantha Rao, who switched sides, will contest from Malkajgiri while his son M Rohith also got a ticket from Medak.