Uma Bharti missing from BJP’s list of star campaigners in Madhya Pradesh

Uma Bharti led the BJP to victory in the 2003 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections (file photo)

Bhopal:

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti did not feature in the BJP’s list of star contenders for the state’s Lok Sabha polls. However, the party chose Suresh Pachouri, who recently quit the Congress, for the post.

On Tuesday night, the ruling party announced a list of 40 star campaigners in Madhya Pradesh, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Uma Bharti, who led the BJP to victory in the 2003 assembly elections, also failed to make it into the BJP’s list of star campaigners in the 2023 state elections.

Earlier this month, the senior BJP leader had said she would not contest elections in the next two years and would instead work on reviving the Ganga, but also made it clear she would not quit politics.

Besides Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, his counterparts Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Bhajanlal Sharma (Rajasthan), Bhupendra Pa Tel (Gujarat) Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam) and Vishnu Deo Sai (Chhattisgarh) will elevate BJP candidates to stars in Madhya Pradesh candidates..

Former Union minister Pachauri, who joined the BJP from Congress earlier this month, has also been included in the list.

Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda, party state unit president VD Sharma, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Fagan Singh Kuras Faggan Singh Kulaste, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Smriti Irish and Virendra Kumar Khatik was one of the 40 key figures selected to campaign for his candidacy.

Polling for 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh will be held in four phases – April 19, April 26, May 7 and May 13.

Madhya Pradesh deputy chief ministers Jagdish Devda and Rajendra Shukla and their peers Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra) and Keshav Prasad Maurya (Uttar Pradesh) are also in the list, which also includes former chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Prahlad etc. Madhya Pradesh Cabinet Ministers Patel, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Aidal Singh Kansana and Tulsi Silawat.

Former state ministers Gopal Bhargava and Narottam Mishra and former Union minister Satyanarayan Jatia have also been appointed to this post Task.

Of the 29 seats in the state, the BJP won 28 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the remaining seat, Chhindwara, was won by Congress MP Nakul Nath.

In the first phase on April 19, Sidhi, Shahdol (ST), Jabalpur, Mandla (ST), Balaghat and Chhindwara will go to vote.

According to poll officials, around 565 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the state.

Congress has so far announced candidates for 22 seats. The BJP has announced candidates for all 29 constituencies.

Congress is yet to announce candidates for Khandwa, Vidisha, Damoh, Guna, Gwalior and Morena seats. It has left the Khajuraho constituency to the Samajwadi Party under a seat-sharing agreement.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)