Cong names Nath, 143 others in its first list for high-stakes battle

The Congress on Sunday released its first list of 144 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, renominating 69 sitting legislators, including former chief minister Kamal Nath, and fielding actor Vikram Mastal, who played Lord Hanuman in a television serial, against incumbent chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

- Shruti Tomar

Polling for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly will be held on November 17. Results will be declared on December 3, along with Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoramall of which will also vote in assembly polls on different dates next month.

Mastal, who played the role of Hanuman in Anand Sagar's 2008 TV serial Ramayan, will contest the elections from Budhni in Sehore district against chief minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Mastal joined the Congress in July this year.

State Congress president and former chief minister Kamal Nath will be contesting from his home constituency Chhindwara, while the party has also fielded senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh's son Jaivardhan Singh and brother Lakshman Singh from Raghogarh and Chachoura, respectively, in Guna district.

The party has named 69 of its 96 sitting legislators and dropped three MLAs, including former assembly speaker ND Prajapati, while 39 are first-timers. The Congress list also includes 36 of those candidates that had lost the 2018 assembly polls or subsequent bypolls in the state.