Madhya Pradesh Assembly bypolls: BJP fields Ramakant Bhargava from Budhni, Ramniwas Rawat from Vijaypur 

After suffering setbacks in the 2023 State Assembly elections and 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Congress has been actively campaigning in the two constituencies

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday (October 19, 2024) announced its candidates for the upcoming byelection on two seats of Madhya Pradesh, fielding Cabinet Minister Ramniwas Rawat from Vijaypur and former MP Ramakant Bhargava from Budhni seat. 

Budhni Assembly constituency was vacated by former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan after he was elected an MP from Vidisha in this year’s Lok Sabha elections and became a Union Minister. 

Whereas the bye-election in Vijaypura was necessitated after Mr. Rawat, a six-term MLA from Vijaypur, had moved from the Congress to the BJP in April and resigned from his legislative membership in July. 

The two seats are scheduled to go to vote on November 13 while the counting will be on November 23, the Election Commission had announced. 

The Congress is yet to announce its candidates from the two seats. 

After suffering back to back setbacks in the 2023 State Assembly elections and 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Congress has been actively campaigning in the two constituencies, especially in Vijaypur where it has accused Mr. Rawat of “betraying” the party as well as the voters.

Mr. Bhargava’s candidature from Budhni makes a swap of candidates by the BJP as he had vacated the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat for Mr. Chouhan in June. 

Mr. Bhargava had represented Vidisha in the Lok Sabha from 2019 to 2024. 

The name of Mr. Chouhan’s son, Kartikey Chouhan, was also being speculated from Budhni. However, some pictures of Mr. Bhargava’s campaign material had recently gone viral on the internet before the announcement of his candidature, with the Congress claiming confusion in the BJP’s ticket selection.

Published - October 19, 2024 08:48 pm IST