The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has released the second list of candidates for poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The list, declared late on Monday, has 29 names for Madhya Pradesh and 12 for Chhattisgarh. The party on September 8 announced its first list of 10 candidates each for both states.
In Madhya Pradesh, the AAP has fielded Anurag Yadav from Indore-1 where the BJP has declared its national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya as its candidate.
The seat is currently held by the Congress. In Bhopal Uttar from where Congress’ Arif Aqueel is the sitting MLA, the AAP has fielded Mohd. Saood.
In Narela, a stronghold of State Minister Vishwas Sarang, Rahisa Begam Malik will contest on the AAP ticket.
The party has also announced a candidate from Shivpuri whose four-time sitting MLA, State Minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia, has recently announced that she would not be contesting due to health issues.
The Congress, which rules Chhattisgarh and is the principal Opposition party in Madhya Pradesh, besides being an INDIA bloc partner of the AAP, is yet to declare any candidate for either state.
Former BJP MLA Mamta Meena, who joined the AAP recently in Delhi, has been fielded from Chachaura seat in MP's Guna, will now fight elections from there as an AAP candidate.
The list also features seven candidates from reserved seats -- three Scheduled Tribes and four Scheduled Caste seats.
While in Chhattisgarh, the AAP has covered almost all of the state, including two from capital Raipur -- Raipur Gramin and Raipur West.
Notably, despite the politics being largely bipolar and the Congress scoring a landslide win in last Assembly polls, the non-Congress, non-BJP parties collectively bagged an encouraging chunk in the 2018 vote share.
AAP's national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who addressed two public rallies in Madhya Pradesh and two in Chhattisgarh so far, has made several poll promises for both states.
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