Bhopal, Aug 11 (PTI) The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has released its first list of candidates for the year-end assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, fielding nominees in seven constituencies, including one reserved for Dalits, a party leader said on Friday.
With this, the Mayawati-led outfit has become the first party in the BJP-ruled state, which has a 230-member assembly, to announces its candidates for the polls, whose schedule is yet to be announced.
Interestingly, the lone sitting BSP MLA Ram Bai Parihar, who represents Patharia in Damoh district in the assembly, does not figure in the list which was released on Thursday night.
Asked about Parihar’s omission from the first list, BSP sources said she has not yet met party chief Mayawati.
As per the list, the BSP has fielded Balveer Singh Dandotia from Dimani in Morena district, Awadesh Pratap Singh Rathore from Niwari, Ramraja Pathak from Ramnagar in Chhatarpur district, Maniraj Singh Patel from Rampur Baghelan in Satna district, Vishu Dev Pandey from Sirmaur and Pankaj Singh from Semari, both seats in Rewa district.
The seventh BSP candidate is Devraj Ahirwar, who will contest elections from the Scheduled Caste reserved seat of Raigaon in Satna district.
State BSP president Ramakant Pippal told PTI that his party has decided to field candidates in all the 230 assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress and the BJP have been the dominant political forces.
“We are going to nominate our candidates before the BJP and the Congress,” he added.
Pippal said the first list of candidates has been issued on the directive of Mayawati.
In the 2018 polls, the BSP had won two assembly seats. The party once enjoyed pockets of influence in Madhya Pradesh, but over the years its support base has been shrinking in the central state. PTI LAL RSY
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