By IANS,
Bhopal : It has been a mixed bag of victory and defeat for relatives of several veteran political leaders – from both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress who contested the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.
Among the kith and kin of prominent politicians who emerged victorious in the Nov 27 elections is former central minister Vikram Verma’s wife Neena, who managed to win by a margin of just one vote from the Dhar constituency on the BJP ticket.
Other kin of BJP leaders who made it to the assembly include Malini Gaud (Indore 4), wife of the late Laxman Singh Gaud; senior BJP leader Kailash Sarang’s son Vishwas (Narela in Bhopal); and former chief minister Govind Narayan Singh’s son Dhruv (Bhopal central).
Archana Chitnis, Surendra Patwa, Deepak Joshi, Uma Shankar Gupta and Om Prakash Sacklecha, all relatives of senior BJP leaders, also won.
Among the Congress winners who are kin of senior party leaders are Umar Singhar (Gandhawani), nephew of Jamuna Devi who was leader of opposition in the previous assembly; Ajay Singh (Churhat), central minister Arjun Singh’s son; Nishith Patel (Bahoriband), son of Shravan Patel; Sadhna Sthapak (Gadarwara), daughter-in-law of Harishankar Sthapak; and Ashwin Joshi (Indore 3), nephew of Mahesh Joshi.
Then there are relatives of veterans who failed to make it to the assembly.
While senior BJP leader Laxminarayan Pandey’s son Rajendra Pandey was edfeated from Jaora, Dilip Singh Bhuria’s daughter Nirmala Bhuria lost in Petlawad and so did Nisha Sonkar, wife of the late Prakash Sonkar.
Syed Ahmed, son of the late former governor Gulsher Ahmad, was defeated from Satna and Rakesh Shukla, brother of Jagdish Shukla, tasted defeat in Bijawar of Bundelkhand.