Vijayvargiya ,gaur have their way, sons get ticket

The BJP has yielded to what it often uses to criticize its opponents— dynastic politics.

For the upcoming Madhya Pardesh elections, the BJP finally announced that Akash will contest from Indore-3 seat, placating its national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya— Akash is Vijayvargiya's son.

The sitting MLA from the Indore-3 seat Usha Thakur has been shifted to Mhow from where Vijayvargiya was elected in the 2013 election.

The party also acquiesced in former chief minister Babulal Gaur’s pressure to nominate his daughter-in-law Krishna Gaur as candidate from his traditional Govindpura seat in Bhopal.

Gaur had threatened to contest as an independent from the seat if the BJP denied ticket to either him or his daughter-in-law.

The BJP on Thursday released its third list of 32 candidates.

Former Congress Lok Sabha member Prem Chand Guddu, who recently defected to the BJP, also managed to get a ticket to his son Ajit Borasi from Ghattiya seat in Ujjain district.

Not all have had such a success, another BJP heavyweight and former minister Sartaj Singh, however, failed to persuade the central leadership.

Pouncing on the opportunity, the Congress quickly embraced a sulking Sartaj Singh and gave him a ticket from Hoshangabad seat.

Sartaj Singh had defeated Congress heavyweight late Arjun Singh from Hoshangabad Lok Sabha seat in the 1996 election.

He was the Union health minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government that lasted for 13 days.

Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan too was unsuccessful in getting a ticket for her son Mandhar from any of the five Indore urban seats.

Meanwhile, the Congress in its fifth and final list of 16 candidates has nominated Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s brother-in-law Sanjay Singh Masani from Waraseoni seat in Balaghat district.

Miffed over denial of a BJP ticket, Masani had quit the party last week and joined the Congress.

Last day for filing nomination papers for the Assembly election is November 9 and polling is slated on November 28.