After losing to Kamal Nath in Assembly poll, BJP’s Vivek Sahu to challenge his son Nakul Nath in Lok Sabha election

Vivek ‘Bunty’ Sahu, who unsuccessfully contested the 2023 Assembly election against former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, will now challenge the Congress veteran’s son Nakul Nath in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, after the BJP declared him its candidate from the Chhindwara constituency on Wednesday. 

The BJP cleared the names for the five remaining seats from Madhya Pradesh in its second list of candidates for the parliamentary election. The party has now announced the candidates for all 29 seats from the State. 

In its latest list, the BJP has dropped two of its sitting MPs; Bharti Pardhi will replace Dhal Singh Bisen in Balaghat, and Savitri Thakur will replace Chattar Singh Darbar in the Dhar (Scheduled Tribe) reserved seat.

The party, however, retained two other sitting MPs, Anil Firoziya from the Ujjain (Scheduled Caste) reserved seat, and Shankar Lalwani from Indore.

Mr. Sahu, the BJP’s Chhindwara district unit president, had given a tough fight to Mr. Kamal Nath in the Chhindwara Assembly seat in November’s Assembly election, but lost to him by about 36,000 votes. 

On Tuesday, the Congress also announced its candidates for 10 seats in the State. 

The BJP’s first list, released on March 2, featured some prominent names, including former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, and BJP State unit president V.D. Sharma from Khajuraho. 

The Congress is yet to declare its candidates for 18 seats, while it has given the Khajuraho seat to the Samajwadi Party, its ally in the Opposition INDIA coalition.