Madhya Pradesh Lok Sabha elections: BJP axes 5 MPs in its first list of 15

BHOPAL: BJP announced its first candidates in Madhya Pradesh for Lok Sabha polls, and the big surprise was that it retained two-third of its sitting MPs.


So far, there was intense speculation that it could drop at least 50% MPs to counter anti-incumbency, but only five have been axed in the first list of 15 — Anup Mishra from Morena , Bhagirath Prasad from Bhind, Gyan Singh from Shahdol, Jyoti Dhurve from Betul and Chintamani Malviya from Ujjain.

Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar has been shifted from Gwalior to Morena.

If the party does end up changing half of its sitting MPs, it would mean largescale changes in the remaining 14 seats — which include the prized constituencies of Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Vidisha. The first list is usually of who the party believes are clear choices.

Everyone has their eyes on Bhopal after Congress fielded Digvijaya Singh. Former bureaucrat Bhagirath Prasad has been dropped from Bhind.

BJP rewards Himadri Singh by giving her Shahdol ticket

Everyone has their eyes on Bhopal after Congress fielded Digvijaya Singh.

Rakesh Singh, who arrived at the party headquarters in Bhopal on Saturday evening, said: “There is a favourable atmosphere for BJP in the country and state. Tickets have been given only to winning candidates.”

The MPs who have been repeated in the first list included Union minister Virendra Kumar (Tikamgarh), Prahlad Patel (Damoh), state BJP chief Rakesh Singh (Jabalpur), Sudhir Gupta (Mandsaur) and Nandkumar Singh Chouhan (Khandwa).

The dropping of Chintamani Malviya from Ujjain was unexpected. He was confident of getting the ticket. Instead, the party fielded Anil Firojiya, who lost the Tarana seat in 2018 assembly polls. Malviya told TOI that he didn’t know why he was dropped. “But I stand by the party’s decision and will work for the victory of party’s candidate,” he said.

Former minister Gyan Singh, who won the Shahdol bypoll in 2016 by defeating Himadri Singh, has been dropped. Himadri, who switched from Congress to BJP just three days ago, has replaced him. Former bureaucrat Bhagirath Prasad has been dropped from Bhind. In 2014, he had switched from Congress to BJP in the run-up to the election, and won the seat for BJP. This time, BJP has given the ticket to Sandhya Rai.

Anup Mishra — nephew of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee — has been dropped from Morena. He had lost the 2018 assembly polls from Bhitarwar constituency of Gwalior. And Tomar, who was said to be keen to change from Gwalior, has got his wish and is pitched from Morena. Tomar’s name was doing the rounds for Bhopal, but he denied it, say sources.

Jyoti Dhurve’s axing was no surprise as the Betul district administration had last month cancelled her ST certificate. Durgadas Uike has been given a chance from Betul. Earlier, a section of BJP workers had demanded to change Virendra Kumar from Tikamgarh. But the party placed it faith in him, again.