Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been re-nominated in his assembly constituency of Budhni in the fourth list of candidates declared by BJP on Monday.
With this, the week-long speculation over whether he would contest in the November 17 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh has been put at rest.
Mr Chouhan was seen going round the state in the last one week asking people if he would contest in the polls and become chief minister, triggering such a speculation.
Besides Mr Chouhan, his 24 ministerial colleagues have been retained in their respective seats in the party’s fourth list containing names of 57 candidates.
The list has retained 54 MLAs including 24 state ministers in their respective seats.
Two BJP MLAs have swapped their assembly constituencies.
With the release of the fourth list, BJP has so far declared candidates in 136 out of the total 230 assembly constituencies in the state.
The party has declared names of 39 candidates each in the first and second lists. The party has declared its candidate in one seat in the third list.
The party has fielded seven BJP MPs including three Union ministers and one of the party’s national general secretaries in the second list, taking everyone in BJP as well as Congress by surprise.
Seventy five of the 78 seats where candidates were declared by the party in the first two phases were lost by BJP in the last assembly polls.
