Congress second list of 16 candidates out for MP polls

Four other sitting MLAs who have been renominated comprise Mahendra Singh Yadav, Gopal Singh Chauhan, Vikram Singh Natiraja and Brijendra Singh Yadav.

The Congress Sunday issued its second list of 16 candidates which included five sitting MLAs and several new faces for the November 28 Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls.

The party since Saturday has declared the names of 171 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.

Senior Congress legislator Ram Niwas Rawat has been renominated from the Vijaypur seat in Sheopur district where he will be pitted against BJP's Sitaram Adivasi.

Sources said Rawat wanted to contest from Sabalgarh in Morena district, but dropped his demand following opposition within the party.

Four other sitting MLAs who have been renominated comprise Mahendra Singh Yadav, Gopal Singh Chauhan, Vikram Singh Natiraja and Brijendra Singh Yadav.

They have been giving tickets from Kolaras in Shivpuri district, Chanderi in Ashoknagar district, Rajnagar in Chhatarpur district and Mungaoli in Ashoknagar district respectively.

The party has nominated a new face, Sidhharth Lada (36), against Yashodharaja Scindia, MP minister and a member of the erstwhile Gwalior royal family, from Shivpuri.

Mahendra Singh Chouhan will take on Vishwas Sarang, a minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, from Narela seat in Bhopal.

Chouhan had contested unsuccessfully against Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Budhni in the 2013 Assembly polls.

The Congress has nominated Baijnath Kushwaha, a young face, to take on BJP's Sarla Rawat in Sabalgarh constituency in Morena district.

The party renominated Rajendra Bharti to take on MP Public Relations Minister Narottam Mishra again from Datia. Bharti had lost to Mishra from Datia in 2013.

Congress has nominated fresh face Govardhan Dangi from Biaora constituency in Rajgarh district.

Former Congress minister Kamleshwar Prasad Dwivedi will take on sitting BJP MLA Kedarnath Shukla from Sidhi constituency.

Chandra Prakash Ahirwar (32), a new face in the Congress' list, will take on Gopilal Jatav, a former MP minister from Guna (SC) seat.

Party sources said Ahirwar has a strong presence in the area.

Debutant Manoj Malve has been given a ticket against BJP's Yogesh Pandegra from Amla (SC) constituency in Betul district.

The Congress has pitted Rambhajan Saket against BJP candidate Subhash Verma from Devsar (SC) constituency in Singrauli district, both of them fighting their first the assembly polls.

The Congress has nominated Mukesh Patel and Valsingh Bhuria from Alirajpur (ST) in Alirajpur district and Petlawad (ST) seats in Jhabua district.

The Congress had announced its first list of 155 candidates Saturday, in which it renominated 46 sitting MLAs.

The names of Congress state unit chief Kamal Nath and poll campaign committee in-charge Jyotiradtiya Scindia are not on the list. They are touted to be frontrunners for the chief minister's post if the party wins.

The first list of 155 names was released late Saturday night and it includes that of 21 women and 24 fresh faces.

It has struck a fine balance between supporters of Scindia and former chief minister Digvijay Singh, sources said.

The leader of opposition in the state and son of former chief minister late Arjun Singh, Ajay Singh will fight from Chruhat.

With the second list of 16 MLAs, the Congress has now announced candidates for 171 seats.

(With inputs from agencies.)