New Delhi, Nov 03: BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Madhya Pradesh Uma Bharati will contest from Bada Malara constituency while the state unit general secretary Shivraj Singh Chauhan is being pitted against Chief Minister Digvijay Singh from Raghoghar as the party released the first list of 137 candidates for the polls to 230-member assembly. The party announcement ends suspense over whether the party would field Bharati, a Lok Sabha MP, in the polls in the wake of speculation that such a move could restrain her campaigning to her constituency.
"The people in Raghoghar are very angry with the chief minister and they want a serious candidate who could defeat him and therefore we decided to field Chauhan against him," said Uma Bharati after party general secretary Pramod Mahajan released the list.
The list was finalised at the meeting of the party's central election committee chaired by party president M Venkaiah Naidu at the residence of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"We came only with single names for each of the constituencies and therefore there was no question of any controversy or anything," Bharti said.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and state leaders Kailash Joshi and Babulal Gaur. Bureau Report