Bhopal: Disgruntled leaders of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are gearing up to upset many apple-carts in Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls scheduled for November 28.
More than 60 rebels of the BJP have flexed their muscles to stay in the electoral fray as independents, giving sleepless nights to the party’s crisis managers. The Congress is also faced with the rebel heat as over 14 party leaders have dropped more than enough hints that they were going to contest the polls as independents.
Though the BJP and the Congress have partially succeeded in securing the withdrawal of some rebel candidates from the fray, a majority of others are not ready to be convinced to withdrawal from the fray. They are likely to impact the poll outcome in at least 30 Assembly seats out of a total of 230, which are at stake in Madhya Pradesh.
After being denied the ticket from Seoni-Malwa constituency, former minister and BJP leader Sartaj Singh defected to the Congress, which has fielded him from Hoshangabad assembly seat. Singh had wept openly after his name did not appear in the third list of BJP’s candidates for the ensuing Assembly polls.
BJP rebel Ramkrishna Kusmaria, a prominent Kurmi leader and also former Minister, will take on incumbent Finance Minister Jayant Kumar Malaiya in Damoh. Kusmaria is also contesting from Patharia seat. Dheeraj Pateria of the BJP is contesting as a rebel from Jabalpur north-central seat, where he will take on Sharad Jain, a minister in Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan led BJP government in the state.
The other BJP rebels like Samiksha Gupta is in the fray from Gwalior south seat, Narendra Singh from Kushwaha Bhind on the Samajwadi Party ticket, Brahmanand Ratnakar from Berasia, Manoj Darya from Amla, former minister K L Agarwal from Bamori, JP Mandloi from Shahjahanpur and Rajkumar Mev from Maheshwar, as independent candidates.
Similarly, after the Congress denied ticket to Nitin Chaturvedi from Chhatarpur, he joined the Samajwadi Party and is contesting from Rajnagar seat. He is the son of former Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi. Pratap Singh Uike is in the fray from Ghoddongri on the Samajwadi Party ticket. Surendra Singh is fighting independently from Burhanpur, while Rajendra Mandloi is in the fray from Badwani.
Initially, 90 leaders of the Congress had filed their nominations independently, while over 60 leaders of the BJP had jumped in the fray as independents. However, the Congress and the BJP managed to convince some of their rebels to withdraw their nominations, but a chunk of them are still in the fray.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]