Congress workers stage a protest against the distribution of ticket for Badnagar state assembly constituency ahead of the assembly election, at the residence of state Congress president Kamal Nath, in Bhopal, on Oct. 22, 2023.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Protests by angry supporters of BJP and Congress leaders who failed to secure tickets for the upcoming Assembly polls continued across Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.

Videos surfaced of several supporters of BJP leader and former MLA Munnalal Goyal, who was denied a ticket from Gwalior East Assembly segment, gathering outside the palace of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. Mr. Goyal was one of the 22 Scindia-loyalist MLAs who had walked out of Congress’s Kamal Nath government in March 2020 and helped bring it down.

Mr. Goyal, however, had lost the following byelections. This time around, the party decided to field Maya Singh from the constituency.

As Mr. Goyal’s supporters created a ruckus outside the palace, Mr. Scindia had to step out to talk to them. He tried to pacify the angry supporters even as they continued sloganeering and even lied down in front of his car.

Meanwhile, several women Congress workers, supporters of party leader Deepti Singh who had sought a ticket from Bhopal’s Govindpura Assembly segment, staged a sit-in at the Pradesh Congress Committee office in the State capital. The Congress has fielded Ravindra Sahu from the seat against sitting BJP MLA Krishna Gaur, the daughter-in-law of former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur.

The two parties are now busy trying to get a grip on the situation and convince the disgruntled leaders.

Earlier on Saturday, soon after the BJP released its fifth list of 92 candidates, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav was heckled by angry BJP workers at Jabalpur party office. The angry workers, supporters of party leader Sharad Jain who was denied a ticket from the Jabalpur-North seat, also beat up a security person, as shown in viral videos.

Several leaders in both parties, including former MLAs and office-bearers, have resigned in the past few days in protest against candidate selection for the November 17 State elections.

Israeli armored personnel carriers head toward the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, October 15, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

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Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls | SP says it will contest the election in alliance with Congress

The Samajwadi Party and the Congress, both members of the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), have worked out a seat-sharing agreement for the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. On Sunday, SP leaders expressed confidence that an INDIA bloc government led by the Congress would be formed in the State.

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Bhopal:

Independent MLA Pradeep Jaiswal, who had served as a minister in the erstwhile Kamal Nath-led government, on Sunday night joined the BJP ahead of the next month’s Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.

Pradeep Jaiswal, a former Congressman, was elected as an Independent MLA from the Waraseoni constituency in Balaghat district in the 2018 elections.

He became a minister when Congress formed a coalition government under Kama Nath with the support of MLAs of BSP, SP, and Independents. The government collapsed in March 2020, 15 months after coming to power.

Kamal Jaiswal joined the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state unit BJP president VD Sharma, a party spokesman said.

Waraseoni municipal council president Sarita Dangre and her predecessor Smita Jaiswal also joined the ruling party.

Polling for all 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh is scheduled to be held in a single phase on November 17. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

 Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday attended the Madhya Pradesh Core Group meeting at the residence of BJP national president JP Nadda in the national capital ahead of the state assembly election.

Earlier on August 17, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of candidates for poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.

BJP declared the names of 39 candidates for the 230-seat Madhya Pradesh Assembly. The party has fielded its Indore district president Rajesh Sonkar to contest the election from the Sonkachh seat in Dewas district.

Former minister and Veteran Congress leader Sajjan Singh Verma is the sitting MLA from Sonkatch seat. In the 2013 state assembly polls, BJP leader Sonkar defeated Tulsi Ram Silawat (now Water Resource Minister) when Silawat was in Congress from the Sanwer seat in the Indore district.

In the last 2018 assembly polls, Mr Sonkar lost to Mr Silawat (when he was still in Congress) from the same Sanwer seat. But later in 2020, Mr Silawat quit the Congress party along with Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scidia and others and joined the BJP. After that Mr Silawat contested the by-poll on BJP’s ticket from the Sanwer seat and won the election.

It is worth mentioning that the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls are scheduled to be held later this year.

In 2018 after the state legislative polls, the Congress formed the government with Kamal Nath becoming the CM.

In 2020, 22 MLAs along with Jyotiraditya Scindia resigned from the Congress, thus leading to a political pandemonium in the state.

As a result, the Congress government collapsed in the state and the BJP came to power with Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the CM.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)