MP polls: BJP retains 37 MLAs in 5th list; replaces 29 with new faces

Bhopal: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released the fifth list of candidates for the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh scheduled for November 17. Of the total nominees in the fresh list, 37 sitting MLAs have been retained.

The saffron party has denied tickets to 29 sitting MLAs, including three state ministers and the party's national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya's son, Akash Vijayvargiya.

State ministers who were named as candidates include -- Usha Thakur from Ambedkar Nagar, Inder Singh Parmar from Shujalpur, Mahendra Singh Sisodia from Bamori, Ram Khilavan Patel from Amarpatan, among others.

The saffron party has also retained its several senior leaders who are more than 70 years old.

For instance, the sitting MLA from Satna district's Nagod seat -- Nagendra Singh 'Nagod' is 80.

Another sitting MLA from Gurh seat of Rewa district -- Nagendra Singh is 76-year-old and he too has been retained.

Seventy-three-year-old BJP leader and former speaker of the state Assembly -- Sitasharan Sharma has been retained from Hoshangabad seat.

He will be contesting the election against his brother and Congress candidate -- Girjashankar Sharma.

Similarly, former minister Jayant Malaiya, who had lost the previous election against Congress' Rahul Lodhi, has been fielded from Damoh.

The BJP also nominated several former ministers, such as Maya Singh from Gwalior East, Narayan Singh Kushwaha from Gwalior South, Jayant Malaiya from Damoh, Archana Chitnis from Burhanpur, Mahendra Hardia from Indore 5, Antar Singh Arya from Sendhwa, and Surya Prakash Meena from Shamshabad.

The BJP has till now declared 228 candidates for a total 230 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh.

The candidates for two seats – Guna and Vidisha are yet to be announced.