5-state elections: No ex-bureaucrat in Madhya Pradesh election fray

Anup Dutta

Bhopal, October 29

The BJP and Congress’ lists of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh have held down the party’s trend of offering an electoral launch pad for bureaucrats.

Ahead of the elections, two government officials — Nisha Bangre, former Sub-Divisional Magistrate in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, and Rajeev Sharma, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official and former Commissioner of Shahdol Division — tendered their resignation and were ready to contest the poll. However, both Congress and BJP has not made them party candidate.

On June 23, Bangre resigned, apparently to contest the state election. However, the General Administration Department (GAD) cited to complete the departmental enquiry (DE) pending against the officer before taking a decision on her resignation.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission announced dates for the Assembly elections to be held in the state on November 17 for the 230 seats. Gearing up for the big fight, the Congress left a call on Amla constituency for several days, from where Nisha was hoping to contest. The BJP decided to serve ticket to its sitting MLA.

Finally, five days ahead of the last date to submit nomination papers, the Congress declared its candidate for Amla seat on Tuesday.

With this, the high hopes of a government official contesting in the Assembly election came to an end.

In the case of Rajeev Sharma, an IAS official, things didn’t happen overnight. Few days ahead of the Election Commission’s announcement of polling date, Sharma took voluntary retirement.

Sources close to Sharma claimed that he was eager to contest from his home district Bhind. Unlike Nisha, Sharma had a smooth exit, but was unable to have a smooth entry in the political landscape.

Both the BJP and Congress have announced their candidates from the Bhind Assembly seat. Elections in Madhya Pradesh will be held on November 17.