Shivraj Singh Chouhan to contest Lok Sabha polls from Madhya Pradesh's Vidisha
BJP on Saturday released the first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha election - out of which 24 have been announced from Madhya Pradesh.
Former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been fielded as the BJP candidate from the state's Vidisha seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. The former CM's candidature was announced at a press conference by the BJP on Saturday.
The saffron party released the first list of 195 candidates - out of which 24 have been announced from Madhya Pradesh.
Chouhan, who served as the chief minister of MP for 15 years, said that he is “grateful” to the central leadership for giving him the “privilege” to serve the public.
“National reconstruction is the mission of the BJP and under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country is experiencing amazing and unprecedented development…Whatever work the party considers appropriate, it is given to the party workers. The party has decided to let workers like us contest the elections,” he told news agency ANI.
According to the former CM, the BJP's list of candidates for the Lok Sabha election is “balanced in which youth, women, and others have been given a chance to work”.
Meanwhile, Chouhan's wife welcomed him home by putting a ‘tilak’ on his forehead after the BJP announced his candidature.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the longest-serving CM of Madhya Pradesh. He was dropped from the chief minister's chair after defeating anti-incumbency in the 2023 assembly elections. He was replaced by Mohan Yadav.
Chouhan, who joined politics in 1972 at the age of 13, has also served as the national vice president of BJP a year in 2019, and also as the general secretary and president of the BJP Madhya Pradesh unit. He also served as a member of the Parliamentary Board, and a member of the Central Election Committee of the BJP.
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BJP's list of candidates from Madhya Pradesh
The list of BJP's 24 candidates from Madhya Pradesh includes -
Jyotiraditya Scindia - Guna
Shivraj Singh Chouhan - Vidisha
Shivmangal Singh Tomar - Morena
Sandhya Rai - Bhind (SC)
Bharat Singh Kushwaha - Gwalior
Lata Wankhede - Sagar
Virendra Khatik - Tikamgarh (SC)
Rahul Lodhi - Damoh
V D Sharma - Khajuraho
Ganesh Singh - Satna
Janardan Mishra - Rewa
Rajesh Mishra - Sidhi
Shahdol (ST) - Himadri Singh
Ashish Dubey - Jabalpur
Faggan Singh Kulaste - Mandla (ST)
Darshan Singh Choudhary - Hoshangabad
Alok Sharma - Bhopal
Rodmal Nagar - Rajgarh
Mahendra Singh Solanki - Dewas (SC)
Sudhir Gupta - Mandsour
Anita Nagar Singh Chaudhan - Ratlam (ST)
Gajendra Patel - Khargone (ST)
Gyaneshwar Patil - Khandwa
Durga Das Uikey - Betul (ST)
Meanwhile, the five Lok Sabha seats in MP on which candidates are yet to be announced include Chhindwara, Balaghat, Ujjain, Indore, and Dhar.