The Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee has reportedly identified 106 candidates for the upcoming assembly election in the state. Of these, 40 are sitting MLAs, while the remaining 66 will be contesting seats that are strongholds of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Hindustan Times cited a senior Congress leader as saying on Friday.
The report said the Congress has another 56 sitting lawmakers but it believes these MLAs need to do more before they are confirmed as candidates. The party has not announced the names of any candidates yet.
The report also cited another Congress leader as saying that the selected candidates have been asked to start campaigning in their respective assembly seats.
"They were identified to end the dispute related to ticket distribution and also prevent last-minute infighting. The workers and office bearers have also been asked to support the candidates," the party leader said.
The elections to the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly is likely to be held at the end of this year.
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress won 114 of 230 seats, while the BJP finished second with 109 seats.
The Congress went on to form a coalition government with the support of Independents, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) under Kamal Nath.
However, that government collapsed after nearly 18 months when a string of MLAs of Congress joined the BJP led by former MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, which paved the way for the return of BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister for another term.
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