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Shivraj ChouhanIn BJP Madhya Pradesh List, Pragya Thakur Dropped

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 3/4/2024 10:59:12 AM

Bhopal, Mar 03 In the BJP's list of 195 candidates announced on Saturday, 24 are for the 29 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh. As the party looks to better its stupendous record of winning 28 seats in 2019, it has given tickets to former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia while replacing controversial MP Pragya Singh Thakur in Bhopal with another candidate. Ms Thakur is one of six sitting MPs who have been denied tickets and 13 sitting MPs have been repeated. Two-and-a-half months after he stepped down as BJP's longest-serving chief minister in the country to make way for Mohan Yadav, Mr Chouhan, who has been named the candidate from Vidisha, told agency: "I am grateful to the central leadership, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh." The former chief minister, who won the seat five times between 1996 and 2005, insisted there were "no ifs" as far as his chances in the upcoming polls were concerned. "I am very close to the people of Vidisha, we are like family. The roadmap for Vidisha is ready. The BJP will win all 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh and the state will put 29 garlands on PM Modi," he said. Vidisha is considered one of the BJP's fortresses in the country and was won by former Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee in 1991 and former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj.