MP assembly bypoll SP nominates Arjun Arya from Budhni seat against INDIA bloc ally Congress

Bhopal, Oct 21 (PTI) The Samajwadi Party on Monday nominated Arjun Arya as its nominee for the Budhni bypoll in Madhya Pradesh against the Congress candidate, claiming the Grand Old Party ignored Akhilesh Yadav-led party's efforts to forge an alliance.
    Notably, Arya had parted ways with SP before the 2018 assembly polls and joined Congress. He met Yadav on October 14 and subsequently joined the SP after resigning from Congress, the Samajwadi Party said.
    The Congress has fielded former minister Rajkumar Patel from the Budhni constituency in Sehore district against ex-MP Ramakant Bhargava of BJP.
    The byelection was necessitated after ex-chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan resigned as an MLA from Budhni to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Vidisha.
    The SP, however, won't contest the bypoll from the Vijaypur constituency, a party leader said.
    Akhilesh Yadav has nominated Arjun Arya to contest the November 13 by-election from Budhni seat, a party release stated on Monday evening.
    The Congress on Sunday night announced the candidature of tribal leader Mukesh Malhotra from the Vijaypur segment, who will face off against Congress-turned-BJP politician and state forests minister Ramniwas Rawat.
    The bypoll to Vijaypur seat is being held due to Rawat’s switch.
    When contacted over the phone, SP national spokesman Yash Bhartiya admitted that MP state unit president Manoj Yadav had met his Congress counterpart Jitu Patwari at the latter's residence four days back but failed to get a satisfactory response on alliance for four days.
    "We wanted an electoral alliance for one of two seats for the bypoll," he said.
    Notably, SP candidate Mirchi Baba had lost his deposit from Budhni constituency in the last assembly elections after he secured around 150 votes.
    This is the third time SP and Congress could not stitch an electoral alliance. Efforts to forge electoral trucks in the 2018 and 2023 assembly polls in MP too came unstuck.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)