Bhopal, Oct 9 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its fourth list of 57 candidates for Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections to be held on November 17. Counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.

The fourth list of BJP includes the names of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Home Minister Narottam Mishra, putting an end to the speculation whether Chouhan and Mishra will contest the elections.

While Chouhan will contest from the Budhni Assembly constituency in his home district Sehore, Mishra has been fielded from his old seat Datia.

In its fourth list, the BJP has also fielded several sitting ministers, including some belonging to Jyotiraditya Scindia's faction who had joined the BJP in 2020.

The ministers who have been given tickets include Arvind Singh Bhadoria (Ater), Praduman Singh Tomar (Gwalior), Bhupendra Singh (Khurai), Govind Singh Rajput (Surkhi), Gopal Bhargava (Surkhi), Praduman Singh Lodhi (Malahra), and Rajendra Shukla (Rewa).

The BJP has also given tickets to some veteran sitting MLAs who are above 75 years of age, including Assembly Speaker Girish Gautam (Devtalab), and tribal leader Bisahulal Singh (Anupur).

The BJP had already released the names of 79 candidates in three lists over the past weeks.

With the fourth list released on Monday, the party has so far announced the names of 136 candidates for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

Opposition Congress is yet to announce its candidates for the November 17 Assembly elections.