Assembly By-Elections: MP BJP Sends Panels of Names for 2 Seats, Budhni, Vacated by Shivraj, in Focus

 Bhopal: The Budhni Assembly constituency, vacated by Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan following his election to the Lok Sabha in the last polls, in Madhya Pradesh is in the focus with the state BJP on Monday sending names of prospective candidates for the poll-bound seat.

By-elections to the Budhni Assembly seat are expected to be held along with Vijayapur Assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh in the near future.

The Vijayapur Assembly seat has fallen vacant following resignation of sitting Congress MLA Ramnivas Rawat from the house ahead of the April-May LS polls.

Mr Rawat quit Congress and joined BJP then.

He has been inducted in the Mohan Yadav cabinet.

“The Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) of the party which met here on Monday prepared panels of names of prospective candidates for Budhni and Vijayapur Assembly constituencies and sent them to the Central Election Committee (CEC) for scrutiny”, state BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma said.

Sources said while Mr Rawat is the lone name recommended by the PEC for Vijayapur, a panel of three names has been prepared for Budhni seat for the CEC to finalise one of them.

The three prospective candidates recommended by the PEC for Budhni are former MP Ramakant Bhargav, Raghunath Singh Bhatti and Ravi Malvya, a senior BJP functionary told this newspaper, unwilling to be quoted.

Mr Bhargav, said to be a close aide of Union minister Mr Chouhan, had represented Vidisha LS seat in Madhya Pradesh in 2019 polls.

The BJP however had fielded Mr Chouhan from the seat in the last LS polls by denying ticket to Mr Bhargav from the seat.

Sources said that Mr Chouhan may have a major say in the selection of candidate for Budhni in the upcoming by-elections.

Sources said that Mr Chouhan’s camp had been lobbying hard for the nomination of his son Kartikey Sing Chouhan for the seat in the ensuing by-elections.

The party’s mandal unit chiefs in Budhni Assembly constituency had reportedly launched a campaign for Junior Chouhan for nomination from the seat in the coming by-elections, sources said.

The PEC however did not consider his name, sources said.

Mr Chouhan has earlier said that the selection of the candidate for Budhni has been left to the party to decide.