‘VIP’ Seats A Problem, Congress Struggles To Find Candidates To Take On Scindia And Shivraj

Two ‘VIP’ seats are particularly bothering Congress to find suitable candidates to field in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Guna and Vidisha are among the six LS seats in Madhya Pradesh where Congress is yet to put up its candidates.

“We want to field strong candidates in the two ‘VIP’ seats”, a senior Congress functionary told this newspaper here on Sunday, requesting not to be quoted.

BJP has fielded Union Civil Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in Guna. The party has declared former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as its candidate for Vidisha.

Sources said that Congress veteran and former Union minister Arun Yadav is keen to take on Mr Scindia in Guna in this poll to emerge as the ‘giant killer’.

He is also being considered for the Khandwa LS constituency, his home turf.

Mr Yadav’s camp argued that the former Union minister stood a fair chance of snatching Guna from BJP by playing the ‘Yadav’ card in the elections.

In the 2019 LS polls, BJP had wrested the seat from Congress by pitting Dr K P Yadav, then a close aide of Mr Scindia, against the Union Civil Aviation minister who was in Congress then.

But, BJP denied ticket to Dr Yadav in this poll and fielded Mr Scindia in Guna.

Mr Scindia has been fielded in Guna LS seat in this poll by BJP despite being a Rajya Sabha member.

Congress leader Mr Yadav’s loyalists felt that the former Union minister may cash in on the resentment brewing among the Yadav community in Guna over denial of party ticket to Dr Yadav in the LS polls by BJP and may upset Mr Scindia’s prospects in the upcoming elections.

Sources said that Congress MLA Jaivardhan Singh, son of Congress veteran Digvijay Singh, is however ‘opposing’ the candidature of Mr Yadav in Guna by terming him as an ‘outsider’.

Sources said that Mr Yadav’s camp is not finding the ground situation in Khandwa favourable for him in the poll and hence wants to shift to Guna.

In Vidisha, Congress is still examining who among the three prospective candidates, former MP Pratap Bhanu Sharma, sitting party MLA Devendra Patel and retired Indian Air Force (IAF) officer Anuma Acharya, would be a strong candidate to take on Mr Chouhan in the polls.

The party is yet to declare candidates in four other LS seats, Khandwa, Damoh, Gwalior and Morena, in MP.

Congress declared its second list of 12 candidates for Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.

Of them, Mr Digvijay Singh has been fielded in Rajgarh and former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria has been fielded in Ratlam.

The party has earlier declared candidates in ten seats.

Congress has left one seat, Khajuraho, in the state to its electoral ally Samajwadi Party (SP).

BJP had won 28 out of 29 seats in 2019 LS polls in Madhya Pradesh.