The Congress has announced the names of 15 candidates for the by-polls to the 27 vacant Madhya Pradesh Assembly seats.
Among the candidates is Sunil Sharma who will be fielded from Gwalior, a bastion of Jyotiraditya Scindia, and former MP Premchand Guddu from Sanwer. Suresh Raje has been given the ticket from Dabra seat to take on Imarti Devi, a State Minister, and Scindia loyalist.
As many as 22 MLAs from the Congress resigned along with Scindia and joined the BJP, which led to the fall of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in March.
Congress has a tough task ahead to win all the seats. In the 2018 elections, Congress won in the Gwalior-Chambal area but the situation has since changed after Scindia and his supporting MLAs left the party.
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In March, 22 MLAs defected from the Congress, with the numbers finally reaching 25. At present, in the 230-member Assembly, the Congress has 89 MLAs and the BJP 107 MLAs. The ruling party needs 9 more seats to reach the halfway mark.
But the Congress has to win all 27 seats, which go to the by-polls, to reach the 116-mark, and at least 25 to remain in the game because there are four Independent MLAs, 2 BSP MLAs, and one Samajwadi Party MLA who can tilt the numbers balance.
Sources: IANS