The Congress has announced the list of 15 candidates for the upcoming bypolls in Madhya Pradesh.

Representative image | PTI

The Congress on Friday announced candidates for 15 out of 27 assembly segments up for the bypolls in Madhya Pradesh. The tickets have been announced even though the Election Commission has not announced dates for the bypolls. There is, however, speculation that the elections on the vacant seats would be held along with the Bihar elections in November.

The bypolls on these seats were necessitated after Congress MLAs resigned to join the BJP, toppling the Kamal Nath government and making way for BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan to resume power.

The candidates at 15 seats announced by the Congress on Friday include nine seats reserved for SC candidates and two seats for ST candidates. Out of the 27 seats going to polls, a total of 10 are reserved for SCs and three for STs.

The BJP has already announced that it will field the former Congress MLAs who had switched to the BJP from the Congress. The party has not, however, formally announced candidates as yet though its leaders are campaigning already.

Ideology seems to have gone for a toss as fas as the candidates for the upcoming elections are concerned. While the BJP candidates are all former Congress MLAs, the Congress is fielding candidates drawn from the BJP.

In Bamori, the Congress has fielded former minister and BJP leader KL Agarwal even though there were numerous Congress candidates available to choose from. In Sanver, the Congress has fielded Premchand Guddu who had crossed over to the BJP from the Congress just before the 2018 assembly elections but returned to the Congress after then Congress MLA and minister Tulsi Silawat resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP. Silawat and Guddu, who are both from a Congress background would be contesting against each other from Sanver.

Here is the list of candidates announced by Congress and BJP on 15 seats: