Jyotiraditya Scindia To Contest? Madhya Pradesh Minister's "Dhamakedar List" Hint

The BJP's fifth list of candidates for next month's Madhya Pradesh Assembly election could be its most "explosive", party sources told NDTV today. When asked about the list, Home Minister Narottam Mishra declared, "List dhamakedar hee hogi. Aage dhamake hee dhamake hone wale hain, Diwali ka tyohar aane wala hai, (List will be explosive... expect fireworks... Diwali is ahead)."

The ruling party Monday ended suspense over the electoral fate of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, 24 of his ministers, and 57 sitting lawmakers, all of whom were named in the fourth list.

The party has named 136 candidates. The Assembly has 230 seats, meaning the BJP has 94 more decisions to make. Many will be made at Sunday's meeting of the Central Election Committee.

Sources in the party's state unit said 25 to 30 MLAs may be dropped because of negative feedback.

The list is likely during the Navratri season, which begins Sunday, because the party wants to contain protests by leaders who don't get tickets; the hope is they will be too busy celebrating the festival.

Among those whose political future remains uncertain are nine ministers; they include Mahendra Singh Sisodiya, OPS Bhadoria, Brijendra Singh Yadav and Suresh Dhakad, all of whom are loyal to Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and who joined him in walking out of the Congress in 2020.

The fate of the nine aside, speculation persists the BJP will name Mr Scindia himself.

READ | Jyotiraditya Scindia's State Poll Debut This Year? Aunt Sets Off Speculation

The Civil Aviation Minister is a Rajya Sabha MP but has never contested a state election. His potential candidature, though, is in line with the BJP's tactic for this round of elections - to field a few big-name candidates in each state, like Union Ministers and MPs, with strong local connections.

READ | NDTV Exclusive: Inside Details Of BJP's Strategy For Upcoming State Polls

In Madhya Pradesh the party has already named four other MPs and three Union Ministers.

Mr Scindia, though, may not have been the first choice; buzz about him sparked only after his aunt, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, opted out of this election citing health reasons; the 69-year-old Ms Scindia, who is Madhya Pradesh's Sports Minister, has had Covid-19 four times since the pandemic began.

Her nephew may be fielded either from his aunt's Shivpuri seat or any of the two other seats in Guna - Bamori or Kolaras. All three are in the Lok Sabha segment of Guna that he held from 2002 to 2014.

Meanwhile, the Congress and the BJP have taken pot-shots over lists of candidates, or lack thereof.

Mr Mishra also slammed the Congress after the opposition party referred to potential rifts within the BJP, triggered by leaders who were denied tickets. "Congress has no right to question our list. There is no trace of their own... so better if they don't say anything," he said.

The Congress' national spokesperson, Ragini Nayak mocked "internal factionalism in BJP" and said, "I don't know... maybe BJP is eagerly waiting for our list. There was a meeting day before yesterday in which (ex-Chief Minister) Kamal Nath gave a statement that 140 names were finalised (but) we should not release our list in Shraddh Paksh. There will be no opposition after release of our list..."

Madhya Pradesh will vote in a single phase on November 17. Results will be out December 3.

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