The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday released its fourth list of seven candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. Surprisingly, minister and sitting MLA from Panna Kusum Mehdele has been ignored by the party.
The BJP has picked Brijendra Singh to contest from Panna in place of Kusum Mehdele. Fatima Rasul Siddaki has been given ticket from Bhopal (North) seat. Prem Shankar Verma and Bahadur Singh Chauhan have been given tickets to contest from Seoni-Malwa and Mahidpur seat respectively.
Earlier in the day, senior BJP leader and former Union minister Sartaj Singh broke down in public after his name didn't figure in the third list of party's candidates for the November 28 Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls. Singh (77) is a two-time MLA from Seoni-Malwa seat in the state's Hoshangabad district.
According to a supporter of Singh, the BJP has told the veteran MLA that he would not be nominated from Seoni-Malwa. Singh was earlier dropped as MP PWD minister along with state Home minister Babulal Gaur in June 2016 reportedly due to old age.
Sartaj Singh was later named in the Congress' list of candidates. The opposition party announced Singh as its candidate from Hoshangabad minutes after he quit the BJP after being denied election ticket.
