By Express News Service
BHOPAL: Facing anti-incumbency and multiple-time MLAs after being in power for over 18 years, the ruling BJP is believed to be toying with the idea of fielding some of its sitting MPs in the Madhya Pradesh polls.
With less than six months separating the assembly elections and the 2024 national elections, the party’s poll planners don’t seem averse to taking a calculated risk of fielding some of their sitting 28 LS members from Madhya Pradesh in the state polls.
Only six months after having narrowly lost the 2018 assembly polls to the Congress, the BJP bounced back with a stellar performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, winning 28 out of the 29 seats in MP. Four years after the LS polls, the party which is faced with a resurgent Congress following the Karnataka assembly triumph, is now eyeing the “most winnable” candidates in the assembly polls.
“It’s not that all 28 sitting MPs won in 2019 just riding on the Modi wave, they also have deep influence in multiple assembly segments of their parliamentary constituencies,” a senior state BJP functionary told this newspaper.
While there are 28 LS members of BJP from MP, names of 15 of them are doing the rounds as probable candidates in the assembly polls. Those sitting MPs, include Sudhir Gupta (Mandsaur), Guman Singh Damor (Ratlam-Jhabua), Anil Firojiya (Ujjain), DD Uikey (Betul), Dr Dhal Singh Bisen (Balaghat), Gajendra Singh Patel (Khargone), union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste (Mandla), Ganesh Singh (Satna), Riti Pathak (Sidhi), Himadri Singh (Shahdol), Dr KP Singh Yadav (Guna), Rodmal Nagar (Rajgarh), Uday Pratap Singh (Hoshangabad), Vivek Shejwalkar (Gwalior), Mahendra Singh Solanky (Dewas) and Sandhya Rai (Bhind).
Some of these sitting MPs have won or lost the assembly polls in the past. While Balaghat MP Dr Dhal Singh Bisen is a four-time former MLA and ex-MP minister, first-time MP from Bhind seat Sandhya Rai had won from Dimni seat of Morena district in 2003 and Guman Singh Damor had won from Jhabua seat in 2018 polls, before quitting it in 2019 after winning the LS polls.
A senior state BJP’s organizational leader said it’s not just that the party isn’t averse to fielding its sitting MPs in the assembly polls, but many MPs too are believed to be keen on contesting the assembly polls.
BHOPAL: Facing anti-incumbency and multiple-time MLAs after being in power for over 18 years, the ruling BJP is believed to be toying with the idea of fielding some of its sitting MPs in the Madhya Pradesh polls.
With less than six months separating the assembly elections and the 2024 national elections, the party’s poll planners don’t seem averse to taking a calculated risk of fielding some of their sitting 28 LS members from Madhya Pradesh in the state polls.
Only six months after having narrowly lost the 2018 assembly polls to the Congress, the BJP bounced back with a stellar performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, winning 28 out of the 29 seats in MP. Four years after the LS polls, the party which is faced with a resurgent Congress following the Karnataka assembly triumph, is now eyeing the “most winnable” candidates in the assembly polls.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
“It’s not that all 28 sitting MPs won in 2019 just riding on the Modi wave, they also have deep influence in multiple assembly segments of their parliamentary constituencies,” a senior state BJP functionary told this newspaper.
While there are 28 LS members of BJP from MP, names of 15 of them are doing the rounds as probable candidates in the assembly polls. Those sitting MPs, include Sudhir Gupta (Mandsaur), Guman Singh Damor (Ratlam-Jhabua), Anil Firojiya (Ujjain), DD Uikey (Betul), Dr Dhal Singh Bisen (Balaghat), Gajendra Singh Patel (Khargone), union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste (Mandla), Ganesh Singh (Satna), Riti Pathak (Sidhi), Himadri Singh (Shahdol), Dr KP Singh Yadav (Guna), Rodmal Nagar (Rajgarh), Uday Pratap Singh (Hoshangabad), Vivek Shejwalkar (Gwalior), Mahendra Singh Solanky (Dewas) and Sandhya Rai (Bhind).
Some of these sitting MPs have won or lost the assembly polls in the past. While Balaghat MP Dr Dhal Singh Bisen is a four-time former MLA and ex-MP minister, first-time MP from Bhind seat Sandhya Rai had won from Dimni seat of Morena district in 2003 and Guman Singh Damor had won from Jhabua seat in 2018 polls, before quitting it in 2019 after winning the LS polls.
A senior state BJP’s organizational leader said it’s not just that the party isn’t averse to fielding its sitting MPs in the assembly polls, but many MPs too are believed to be keen on contesting the assembly polls.
