Bhopal: Arif To Face Dhruv In Poll Battle; Atif Gets Alok As Rival

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared candidates for 39 seats on Thursday. Out of these 39, two candidates were declared for two constituencies in Bhopal.

Alok Sharma has been given a ticket from Bhopal north constituency and Dhruv Narayan Singh from Bhopal central seat. People of minority community dominate both the seats. Although the Congress has yet to declare candidates for these seats, the contestants have been fixed.

Arif Masood is set to get a ticket from the Bhopal central constituency. Similarly, the son of Arif Aqueel, Atif Aqeel, will get a ticket from the Bhopal north seat.

Since the names of candidates have been declared, the BJP will begin electioneering in these constituencies. Nevertheless, a few local equations are not in favour of the BJP. So, the party has declared its candidates so that they may get enough time for preparations. 

Alok To Contest For Second Time

Alok Sharma is going to contest election from Bhopal north constituency for the second time. The BJP won the seat only in 1993. Congress legislator Arif Aqueel won the seat six times.  Nevertheless, since he is not keeping well, he has decided not to contest this time, so his son Atif Aqueel will be given a ticket from this constituency. Alok contested from this seat in 2008.

Dhruv represented Bhopal Central previously

Dhruv Narayan Singh won election from the Bhopal central constituency in 2008 when he defeated Nasir Islam. In 2013, instead of Dhruv, Surendra Nath Singh contested from this constituency on a BJP ticket and won the election. 

In 2018, Arif Masood defeated Surendranath. The BJP has again kept faith in Dhruv who is considered close to the party's national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.