144 candidates chosen from 4K applicants; next list in 3 days: Kamal Nath

The opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh is seemingly facing the problem of plenty when it comes to the number of aspirants keen to contest the next month's assembly elections on the party ticket if veteran leader Kamal Nath is to be believed.

According to Nath, about 4,000 people have applied for tickets and underlined that the party is ensuring social justice while picking the nominees for the high-stakes contest against the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The MP Congress chief said it is obvious that all poll aspirants cannot get tickets and hoped that "disappointed" leaders would work in favour of Congress.

Polling for 230 seats in MP will be held in a single phase on November 17 and votes will be counted on December 3.

Nath said Congress believes in social justice during the distribution of tickets and this process should fit into the caste equation.

Responding to a query from reporters on how some turncoats from BJP and other parties who joined Congress were given tickets, he said such leaders joined the Grand Old Party only after the consent of local cadres.

"About 4,000 people have applied for tickets, but all of them can't get them. We announced candidates after taking opinions from others. There is hardly any unanimity on such things as all those who applied claim their victory," Nath told reporters.

A day before, Congress issued the first list of 144 candidates, including 69 sitting MLAs. While 39 candidates are from Other Backward Classes, 22 are from the Scheduled Caste category and 30 are from Scheduled Tribes.

As many as 47 candidates in the list are from the general category, six are minorities and 19 are women.

"Out of the candidates announced so far, 65 are below the age of 50 years and 19 are women," Nath said.

He said the Congress will declare candidates for the remaining seats (out of 230) in two-three days.

Underlining the challenge in picking candidates, Nath said, "I never saw a leader in my career who applied for the party ticket and also said he would be defeated. This was a big challenge before us. We will declare the candidates for the remaining seats within two to three days".

Nath also took a swipe at chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the latter's reported statement that he would rise from ashes like the proverbial Phoenix and that Congress is afraid of him.

"Chouhan should tell this to the BJP and not Congress. Why is BJP not declaring him as the CM's face? Why is BJP shying away or is it regretting?" Nath asked.

He said Chhindwara MP and his son Nakul Nath will declare (candidates) for seats from the district.

"Tickets for (seats in) Chhindwara (district) will be declared in Chhindwara first before they will be announced from Delhi," Nath added.

In reply to a question about sharing of seats among allies, he said no discussion has taken place with Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati.

"This election is the question of the state's future. The state has become 'chaupat' (got ruined) and leading in corruption" the legislator from Chhindwara alleged while targeting BJP.