Kharge chairs CEC meet to finalise rest of MP candidates, says public will teach lesson to corrupt govt

New Delhi: Three days after releasing first list of 144 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday again chaired meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) to finalise the rest of the candidates for the assembly election in the state.

The meeting of CEC on Madhya Pradesh took place after the party leadership first held deliberations over the candidates for the Rajasthan.

The meeting of the CEC for Madhya Pradesh was attended by Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal, Madhya Pradesh in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala, state unit chief and former chief minister Kamal Nath, Screening Committee chairperson for Madhya Pradesh Jitendra Singh, PL Punia, Ambika Sonia and many others.

After the meeting, Kharge and wrote on X: “This time Madhya Pradesh will not fall under the influence of BJP. Public anger will teach a lesson to this useless, tyrannical and corrupt government. Justice and commitment will rise in the lives of every section of Madhya Pradesh, because the public will take an unprecedented decision in favor of Congress. Today an important meeting of the Central Election Committee was held regarding Madhya Pradesh.”

According to party leaders, the CEC will meet again on Wednesday evening to put a stamp on the final list of candidates.

Sources said that, during the CEC, the names of the candidates were discussed in detail and soon the party will release its second list for the November 17 polls.

The Congress had released its first list of candidates for the 230 member Madhya Pradesh assembly elections on Sunday, which included the names of Kamal Nath from Chhindwara assembly seat, senior party leader Digvijaya Singh’s son Jaivardhan Singh from Raghogarh assembly seat.

The Congress has fielded actor Vikram Mastal, who played Lord Hanuman'a role in Anand Sagar's 2008 TV show Ramayana, against CM Chouhan from Budhni seat. while Sanjay Shukla will be contesting the election against BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya from Indore 1.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) Govind Singh has been fielded from Lahar assembly seat and former LoP Ajay Singh (Rahul) from Churhat in Sidhi district. The Congress has fielded Avdhes Nayak against the state home minister Narottam Mishra from Datia seat.

The Congress has fielded senior party leader Ramkishor Dange against state agriculture minister Kamal Patel from Dhar assembly constituency. Former minister Jitu Patwari has been given ticket from Rau seat of Indore district, while the party has fielded former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria’s son Vikrant Bhuria from Jhabua seat.

Out of 144 candidates in the first list, the Congress has fielded 47 general candidates and 39 OBC candidates.

On Tuesday, Kamal Nath led Madhya Pradesh Congress in its manifesto promised to fill two lakh vacant posts and promised that at least one lakh job vacancies will be created for youths in rural areas.

In its manifesto, the Congress has mentioned that more than two crore youth are unemployed, and of them, several lakh are skilled and they will be provided jobs through various schemes.

Job-oriented diploma courses related with farming, animal husbandry, and fisheries would be included in school education, it said.

The Congress also said that if it forms the government in Madhya Pradesh, it would allocate a Rs 1,000 crore corpus fund for new startups and to encourage skilled youth for entrepreneurship.

The party has attempted to deal with the main issue plaguing the youth for the last few decades -- irregularities in the state government’s recruitment exams, saying that in power, recruitment exams for government jobs would be made transparent.

Kamal Nath has promised that if he comes to power, his government will introduce a new system of selection for the government jobs in the state.