In Madhya Pradesh, supporters of candidates for election from the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress who did not receive tickets staged protests in various parts of the state on even as both parties tried to downplay the resentment. For the 230 total seats, the BJP has announced candidates for 228 of them, while the Congress has announced 229 candidates for the November 17 assembly elections. In Bhopal on Sunday, Umashankar Gupta’s supporters shouted in support of party candidate Bhagwandas Sabnani, who is running in the Bhopal South West constituency, in front of state BJP president VD Sharma.
In letters to the head of the state unit, several BJP officials from Bhopal South West demanded that Gupta be given the opportunity to run. In a letter to the state BJP president, former BJP MLA for Tikamgarh KK Shrivastava announced his resignation from the party’s primary membership. He expressed his displeasure with the way tickets were distributed. After being refused a ticket, Munnalal Goyal’s supporters in Gwalior, who are supporters of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, demonstrated outside the former royal family’s Jai Vilas Palace.
When questioned about the protests, state BJP spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi said they occasionally happened because of brief excitement.
After Murli Morwal, a sitting Congress MLA from Badnagar, did not receive the ticket, his supporters staged an aggressive protest in front of Kamal Nath, the state party’s chairman, in Bhopal. They set tires ablaze in protest against the Congress’s selection of Rajendra Singh Solanki from Badnagar. At the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) office in Bhopal, protests were also organized by Congress members from the Bhopal neighborhoods of Govindpura and Kurwai.
