MP polls: Protests erupt over Cong's 2nd list of candidates

After the Congress announced its second list of 88 candidates for the next month's Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, protests erupted at several places in the state on Friday through which party workers expressed disappointment over the names of some nominees and denial of tickets to others.

The Congress workers objected to the names of party candidates from Burhanpur, Shujalpur in Shajapur district, Seoni-Malwa in Narmadapuram district, Semaria in Rewa district, Jaora and Alot in Ratlam district along with some other places.

Upset over not being fielded by the party, former Congress Lok Sabha member Premchand Guddu staged a protest along with a large number of his supporters.

He was expecting a ticket from Alot seat in Ratlam, but the party announced the name of sitting MLA Manoj Chawla as its candidate there.

Guddu said he would not accept the decision of New Delhi and Bhopal (party's central and state leadership), hinting that he might fight the upcoming election as an independent candidate.

A group of disgruntled Congress workers burnt an effigy of party candidate Himmat Shrimal, who has been fielded by the party from Jaora seat in Ratlam district. The party workers said they would not accept Shrimal as the candidate.

Congress activists raised slogans and protested against the candidature given to Ramveer Singh Sikarwar, from the Shujalpur assembly segment in Shajapur district, alleging that he was involved in liquor business.

The party workers raised slogans saying they would not accept him as their candidate.

Supporters of Yogendra Singh aka Bunty Bana, who was denied a ticket, burnt the effigy of Sikarwar.

Supporters of former MLA Omprakash Raghuvanshi, who has been denied a ticket from Seoni-Malwa constituency in Narmadapuram district, also protested.

They raised slogans demanding that Raghuvanshi be made the party's nominee instead of Ajay Balram Patel.

The grand old party released its second list of candidates late Thursday night. With this, declared all but one candidate for elections to the 230-member assembly scheduled for November 17.

The Congress has not yet declared its candidate from Amla seat in Betul district from where woman deputy collector Nisha Bangre is seeking a ticket, but the ruling BJP government has not yet accepted her resignation from the services.

The second list of Congress has names of 11 women, taking the total number of women candidates to 30, which is about 13 percent of the 229 seats.

The Congress has denied tickets to six of its sitting MLAs.

It has also changed the candidates on four seats announced in the first list.

The process of filing nominations is beginning on Saturday.