With second list of 88 candidates, Congress announces all but one nominees for MP polls

Congress has announced the second list of 88 candidates, including replacing three named in the first list, but left a call on one seat where it plans to field a woman Deputy Collector whose resignation the ruling BJP government has not accepted.

With this, the Congress has announced 229 seats, retaining 93 sitting MLAs while dropping 16. In the second list alone, ten MLAs were dropped while  13 were retained. One of the dropped MLAs got a ticket for his son in his sitting seat.

The Congress has not decided on the Amla seat where it plans to field Nisha Bangre, a Dalit deputy collector who has submitted her resignation from service and sought party ticket. However, the BJP government has not yet accepted the resignation citing procedural issues while Bangre has approached Bhopal High Court.

On Friday early morning, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath posted on 'X', "the candidates of Congress Party are not just standing to become MLAs, but have also entered the election field to shape the future of Madhya Pradesh. Let us all join our duties with all our might from today and gear up to end 18 years of misgovernance in Madhya Pradesh."

The second list, which was released late Thursday night, showed that the party has replaced candidates of Datia, Gotegaon and Pichhore, amid indications that there has been differences within the party over the distribution of tickets. 

Now instead of Awadesh Nayak, senior leader Rajendra Bharti will take on state home minister Narottam Mishra in Datia where the BJP leader has won three times since 2008. In Gotegaon, it has brought in former Assembly Speaker Narmada Prasad Prajapati after initially denying him ticket in the first list. He replaced Shekhar Choudhary.

Workers' protest has prompted the party to replace Shailendra Singh with Arvind Singh Lodhi in Pichhore.

Former minister and sitting MLA PC Sharma will fight Bhopal South West constituency while the party has given ticket to sitting MLA Arif Aqeel’s son Atif Aqeel from Bhopal North though there was opposition from Arif's younger brother Aamir Aqeel.