Madhya Pradesh is also very crucial for the Congress. At present three Lok Sabha seats are represented by the Congress. Out of these two were won by Kamal Nath (now Chief Minister) and Jyotiraditya Scindia. Both were won more due to their personal influence rather than by the Congress. The third seat was won by Kanti Lal Bhuria, former Central Minister and a tribal leader.

The Congress it is learnt has already selected 12 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. Besides Congress nominees the party is seriously considering to sponsor former BJP veterans Dr. Ram Krishna Kusmaria and Sartaj Singh. Both resigned from the BJP after they were denied tickets for the last Vidhan Sabha elections. While Kusmaria contested as independent Sartaj Singh contested on Congress ticket. Both Singh and Kusmaria are many times MP and MLA. While Kusmaria served as state Minister Sartaj Singh served as Central and state Minister. Both lost the last assembly elections.

AICC central screening committee meeting was held in New Delhi on Thursday late evening where it was decided that Kusumaria, who switched loyalties to the Congress in February is most likely to contest as Congress candidate from a seat in Bundelkhand.

Sources in the state Congress said that Kusmaria, who has been a five-time Lok Sabha MP from Khajaraho and Damoh, could be fielded from one of these two seats. Sartaj Singh’s name is in the panel of ticket probable from Hoshangabad seat. Sartaj Singh defeated Congress stalwart and former Union Minister Arjun Singh from the same constituency in 1998.

The Central screening committee meeting was chaired by AICC organisational general secretary KC Venugopal. Chief Minister Kamal Nath was present at the meeting wherein 12 of the total 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state were discussed. In the meeting it was decided that two sitting MPs – Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna and Kantilal Bhuria from Ratlam – will contest from the same seats. Chief Minister Kamal Nath, who still represents the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat will now contest from the same assembly constituency. Meanwhile name of chief Minister’s son Nakul Nath has almost been finalised for Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat which Kamal Nath has represented for nine terms.

Former MP from Mandsaur Meenakshi Natarjan could be again fielded by the party from the same seat. Sources said former Minister Ram Niwas Rawat could be fielded from Morena and former leader of opposition Ajay Singh’s name is in the panels for both Satna and Sidhi seats. Another former Minister Mahendra Boudh is leading in the race for SC reserved Bhind seat.

Meanwhile the BJP has also initiated the process of selecting its candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. The party is exercising extraordinary care before selecting candidates. BJP is most likely to drop some of its present MPs because of their highly disappointing performance. Some of them have to face angry crowd during their visits to their constituencies. One such MP is Dr. Bhagirath Prasad. Dr. Bhagirath Prasad is a former IAS officer. Prasad, a JNU product also served as Vice-Chancellor of Indore University. In 2014 he was chosen by the Congress as Lok Sabha Candidate but overnight he nearly duped the Congress and filed his nomination as BJP candidate for a reserved constituency and won. But after election he rarely visited his constituency. This made him unpopular. Similar is the position of Sushma Swaraj who represents Vidisha Lok Sabhs seat. Following her sickness she stopped nursing her constituency. She has already expressed her intention of not contesting the coming polls. There are some other MPs who may not get party tickets.

Meanwhile it is learn that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked party’s Members of Parliament to complete self-appraisals about their performance during the last five years and send reports soon. The BJP headquarters sent online forms to all party MPs for the purpose.

MPs have been asked to list the good works done by them in their respective constituencies, which party can list in its achievements. Party MPs have also been asked to give details of caste break up of their constituencies and the implementation of major centrally funded schemes in their respective LS constituencies.

Another question asked to MPs in their self-appraisal which was particularly important for states like MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh is number of assembly seats won under respective LS seat. Around eight assembly constituencies make one LS seat.

BJP has lost MP assembly polls recently after ruling the state for past 15 years. Lok Sabha wise review of assembly seats would help in finding out party’s prospects in LS polls as Congress is in power in the state now.

BJP leaders said the exercise would help in two ways. First it would help in analysing the popularity of MP and secondly major achievements will be included in the speeches of Modi during his tour to the state for the election campaign in coming days.

While some of the party MPs have already sent the report, there are few who are not tech savvy and are unaware about the inputs demanded by the PM.

The Pratinidhi Sabha, which is the highest decision making body of the RSS is meeting in Gwalior of Madhya Pradesh. Asked about the agenda of the meeting a RSS spokesman said no separate discussion will take place on the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, adding that RSS believes that maximum number of people should vote. “The meet will not discuss electoral politics but the Swayamsevaks will create an awareness in the society and encourage them to caste their votes” he said.

But informally the RSS is likely to get feedback about the BJP’s position in Madhya Pradesh and in other states and communicate its assessment about likely party candidates. The assessment, which the leadership will get from 1400 delegates attending Gwalior meet will help the BJP in selecting its candidates and to formulate strategy for the May Lok Sabha polls. (IPA Service)