AAP reveals second list of candidates for Madhya Pradesh elections; uncertainty surrounds electoral alliance among INDIA bloc allies in the state

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a significant member of the opposition INDIA bloc, has announced its second list of 29 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. This move by Arvind Kejriwal's party has cast doubt on the possibility of an electoral alliance within the INDIA bloc for the MP elections.

So far, the AAP has revealed its candidates for 39 seats in the state, with its initial list of 10 candidates having been released last month. Notably, this second list includes Mamta Meena, a former BJP MLA who joined the AAP after being denied a ticket by the BJP from the Chachoura constituency. The AAP has fielded her from the same area.

In this list, candidates for three Scheduled Tribe (ST) and four Scheduled Caste (SC) reserved seats have also been announced. Additionally, two candidates from Bhopal city, Mohammed Saud (Bhopal North) and Raisa Begum Malik (Narela), have been declared. From the Indore district, three candidates have been announced: Sunil Choudhary (Mhow), Anurag Yadav (Indore-1), and Piyush Joshi (Indore-4).

The list further includes candidates like Ramani Devi Jatav (Bhander), Rahul Kushwaha (Bhind), Satinder Bhadoriya (Mehgaon), Chahat Mani Pandey (Damoh), Chanda Kinnar (Malhara), Sunil Choudhary (Mhow), Bheru Singh Anare (Gandhwani), Anoop Goyal (Shivpuri), Sunil Gour (Seoni-Malwa), Anand Singh (Bargi), Pankaj Pathak (Panagar), and Vijay Mohan Palha (Patan), among others.

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Currently in power in Delhi and Punjab, the AAP has also fielded candidates like Nan Singh Nawde (Sendhwa), Dilip Singh Guddu (Deotalab), Varun Ambedkar (Mangawan), Umesh Tripathi (Mauganj), Varun Gujjar Khatik (Raigaon), Usha Kol (Manpur), Ratibhan Saket (Devsar), Anand Mangal Singh (Sidhi), Amit Bhatnagar (Bijawar), Bhagirath Patel (Chhatarpur), Subodh Swami (Nagda-Khachrod), and Deepak Singh Patel (Rewa).

While the ruling BJP in MP has already declared 79 candidates in three separate lists, the Congress has not yet released any candidate list. The AAP and Congress, both prominent members of the opposition INDIA bloc, have not finalized whether they will contest the elections as alliance partners in Madhya Pradesh. A joint rally in Bhopal planned by the INDIA bloc for the first week of October was canceled, as stated by MP Congress chief Kamal Nath. In the previous 2018 assembly elections, the Congress had won 114 seats in the 230-member Assembly and formed a coalition government, but it later collapsed, bringing the BJP back to power with Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the chief minister.