Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): By bringing in fresh faces for the November 17 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the Congress has left several, more in the Vindhya region, surprised.
As per the second list of 85 candidates released late on Thursday night, the grand-old party has decided to field Rajendra Sharma from Rewa to take on state minister Rajendra Shukla
Sharma, who is a businessman, has a clean image. However, he may still face resentment from his own party workers,Madhya Pradesh especially those who were contenders for that particular seat. In its another master stroke; the Congress has fielded Padmesh Gautam against his uncle and the Assembly speaker Girish Gautam.
In the 2022 Zila Panchayat election, Padmesh defeated Girish Gautam’s son Rahul Gautam, and is likely to give a tough contest in the Devtalab seat. Rewa’s Sirmour seat, which the BJP’s Divyaraj Singh won for the last two consecutive elections (2013 and 2018), has Congress fielding Ramgareeb Adivasi.
As the sitting BJP MLA Divyaraj Singh (son of ex-Congress MLA Pushpraj Singh, now in BJP) hails from Rewa’s royal family, the Congress has fielded Adivasi candidates in Brahmin-dominated seats. Ramgareeb, who is an old guard of the Congress, had defeated BJP’s strong leader and state minister (Late) Ramakant Tiwari in 2008.
Kamal Nath led the MP Congress has played this master stroke to send a strong message among the tribal (Kol community) as it has a sizable population in several seats of the district – Rewa, Mangavan, Devtalab, Sirmore, and Gurh, etc. From the Semariya Assembly seat of Rewa district, the Congress has fielded BJP’s former MLA Abhay Mishra, who will be contesting the election against his arch-political rival and sitting BJP MLA K. P. Tripathi.
