Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, former union minister Kantilal Bhuria and two sitting MLAs figure in the list of 12 candidates from Madhya Pradesh in the fourth list of 46 candidates for Lok Sabha Polls announced by the Congress.
Digvijaya Singh would again contest a Lok Sabha poll from his traditional Rajgarh constituency in MP after about 33 years.
Senior tribal leader Kantilal Bhuria has been made candidate from the Ratlam seat.
The Congress has chosen its Bhopal district Rural President Arun Shrivastava to contest from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat. Shrivastava would be up against BJP candidate and former Bhopal Mayor Alok Sharma on the seat, which has been with the BJP continuously for the past 35 years since 1989.
The last time Congress won Bhopal was in 1984 when K N Pradhan became Congress Lok Sabha Member.
Digvijaya Singh, a sitting Rajya Sabha Member of the Congress, is one of the biggest leaders named by the party in MP to contest the Lok Sabha polls.
Digvijaya Singh will face BJP’s two-time Lok Sabha member Rodmal Naagar in these polls.
Singh had contested a Lok Sabha election from Rajgarh about 33 years ago in 1991. He won the seat in the Lok Sabha polls of 1984 too.
He contested the Lok Sabha poll from Bhopal constituency in 2019. BJP’s first timer candidate Sadhvi Pragya Thakur had drubbed Digvijaya Singh by more than 3.5 lakh votes in that election.
Later, the Congress sent Digvijaya Singh to the Rajya Sabha from MP in 2020.
So far the Congress has announced 22 names of candidates out of the 29 Lok Sabha seats of MP.
The names for seats of Guna, Vidisha, Khandwa, Gwalior, Morena and Damoh have still not been announced.
The BJP has fielded former MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha and union aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna.
Congress has left the seat of Khajuraho or its INDI Alliance partner Samajwadi Party (SP).