Uma Bharti to contest from Malara

Bharatiya Janata Party's [ Images ] chief ministerial candidate in Madhya Pradesh [ Images ], Uma Bharti, will contest from Bada Malara constituency in the coming assembly election, party general secretary Pramod Mahajan [ Images ] said on Monday.

BJP general secretary Shivraj Singh Chauhan will contest against Chief Minister Digvijay Singh [ Images ] in Raghoghar, Mahajan said.

Releasing the first list of 137 candidates for the December 1 election, he said 58 sitting MLAs have been renominated.

"The people in Raghogarh are very angry with the chief minister and they want a serious candidate who could defeat
him and therefore we decided to field Chauhan against him," said Bharti.

The list was finalised at a meeting of the party's central election committee chaired by president M Venkaiah Naidu at the residence of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee [ Images ].

"We came only with single names for each of the constituencies and therefore there was no question of any controversy or anything," Bharti said.

Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani [ Images ], Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi [ Images ], Finance Minister Jaswant  Singh and state leaders Kailash Joshi and Babulal Gaur also attended the meeting.

Also see: Complete coverage of assembly elections