Bhopal Diary: AIMIM's election plans, BJP's woes and more

Uma distances herself from kin’s candidature
In a surprising development, former chief minister Uma Bharti has distanced herself from her relative and BJP MLA Rahul Singh Lodhi’s wife, Umita Singh, who is contesting the Tikamgarh district panchayat polls. In a recent tweet, while praising Umita’s intellect, the former Union minister said she didn’t know whether Umita is a saffron party member, so it is left to the party to decide about her candidature in the election. Recently Leader of the Opposition Dr Govind Singh had alleged that Lodhi was intimidating a Scheduled Caste women candidate to withdraw from the race to ensure his wife’s victory from the Scheduled Caste-dominated Tikamgarh district panchayat ward.

BJP neta in trouble over accusing Kamal Nath 
State BJP spokesperson and former chairperson of MP Civil Supplies Corporation Dr Hitesh Bajpai is in trouble over his recent tweet in which he had accused state Congress chief and former CM Kamal Nath of selling party tickets for mayoral posts. The state Congress has submitted a complaint against Bajpai at the police cyber cell and is planning to send a defamation notice to the BJP leader over his accusations.

AIMIM to contest urban polls in 7 districts
The Asaduddin Owaisi-headed AIMIM will field candidates in the two-phase urban local body elections in seven districts of Madhya Pradesh next month. These districts are Bhopal, Indore, Ratlam, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Khargone and Jabalpur. The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the party in Hyderabad on Thursday. The list of candidates in the seven urban local bodies (having a sizeable presence of Muslims) will be finalised next week. Recently, the SDPI (the political arm of PFI) announced contesting urban local body polls in MP districts with a sizeable Muslim populations.

Anuraag singh
Our correspondent in Madhya Pradesh singhanuraag.jaurno@gmail.com