Tha ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday declared Ashutosh Tiwari as its candidate for the Datia Assembly by-election in Madhya Pradesh.
Tiwari is a former Chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Housing Board. He has been a long active leader of the BJP in MP.
The official announcement of Tiwari’s name was made through a BJP notification from New Delhi issued by Party national general secretary Arun Singh.
The announcement has once again quashed the expectations of former Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra, who was being considersed as the top contender for the BJP’s candidate for the by-poll.
Mishra had lost to the Congress candidate Rajendra Bharti in the state assembly polls in 2023.
For these by-polls Mishra had even purchased the nomination form, considering himself certain of being named the BJP candidate.
He had also begun campaigning at his own level.
The by-poll has been necessitated, as a special MP/MLA Court at New Delhi on 2 April convicted sitting Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti and sentenced him to three-years imprisonment in a 28-year old case of bank fraud.