BJP names 24 LS poll candidates in Madhya Pradesh with Shivraj Chouhan from Vidisha, Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna

Former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan to contest Lok Sabha election from Vidisha seat, BJP announces.

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will contest the Lok Sabha election from Vidisha seat in the State, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced on Saturday.

Union Minister and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Jyotiraditya Scindia was fielded from his traditional Guna seat, while State BJP president V. D. Sharma will contest from his Khajuraho constituency.

The BJP released its first list of 195 candidates for the parliamentary elections, including 24 out of 29 seats in M.P. The party is yet to declare its candidates to five seats in the State, including Chhindwara, the only constituency that it had lost in 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The party has dropped sitting Guna MP and a former confidant of Mr. Scindia, K. P. Yadav, who in 2019 had defeated Mr. Scinda, then with the Congress.

In Khajuraho, Mr. Sharma will be challenged by a Samajwadi Party candidate as the Congress has conceded the seat to its INDIA coalition ally as part of their seat-sharing arrangement.

The BJP’s list of 24 candidates from M.P. has 12 new faces as the party has denied tickets to seven incumbent MPs while five parliamentarians have resigned from their Lok Sabha membership after becoming MLAs in the State Assembly election held in November 2023.

Mr. Chouhan, who has earlier represented Vidisha seat from 1993 to 2004 before he was made the CM in 2005, will now replace Ramakant Bhargava as the BJP’s candidate in the constituency.