The Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) announced their support to retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer RB Prajapati, a candidate of the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), in Madhya Pradesh’s Khajuraho on Monday, a week after the nomination of SP candidate Meera Yadav was cancelled due to “incomplete form.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded incumbent MP and the party’s state president VD Sharma from the seat.
Khajuraho was the only Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh from where the SP, a member of the INDIA bloc, had decided to contest as part of a seat-sharing pact with the Congress, which is contesting the remaining 28 seats in the state.
Panna district collector and returning officer Suresh Kumar had cancelled the SP candidate’s nomination citing“incomplete form”. Meera Yadav had claimed that she would approach court against it, but she didn’t file any petition.
In a press conference on Monday, MP Congress media department president Mukesh Nayak said, “We are supporting the AIFB candidate as the party is a member of the INDIA bloc. A proposal for a joint meeting of (SP leader) Akhilesh Yadav and (Congress leader) Rahul Gandhi in Khajuraho has been sent and soon the schedule will be announced.”
AIFB state president Jang Bahadur Singh Gill and SP state president Manoj Yadav also attended the press conference.
Prajapati had earlier contested assembly elections from Shivpuri and Tikamgarh as an independent candidate.
