By Sandeep Pauranik

Bhopal, Sep 14 (IANS): As the first list of candidates for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly bypolls was released by the Congress, voices of discontent were growing louder in the party with prominent leaders questioning the party's decisions.

The bypolls are to be held in 27 Assembly constituencies in the state and the Congress has announced the first list of 15 candidates.

In this list, two former Congressmen who had jumped ship from the BJP, have been named as candidates by the Congress while three people with a BSP background have also been fielded by the party. Due to this, discontent within the party is growing.

Former Home Minister Mahendra Bodh, one of the poll contenders, at an event held in Bhander Assembly constituency in Datia district strongly objected to the party nominating Phool Singh Baraiya from there.

He questioned Baraiya's decision of contesting the polls from Bhander. Being a resident of Bhind, Bodh added, he had contested polls from Gwalior in the past but could have contested from some other place as he was a national leader. Despite that he was announced as a candidate from Bhander which was not a fair decision. Former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh was also present at this event.

Similar cases of party leaders being unhappy with the developments have started coming in from many other constituencies as several people who joined the Congress recently from other parties have been given tickets by the party. In the coming days many leaders joining from other political parties could also be made poll candidates.

On the issue of discord within the Congress, Madhya Pradesh state unit spokesman Ajay Singh Yadav said that the Congress was a democratic party where everyone has the freedom to speak and hence the leaders speak their mind. This situation is not there in the BJP where no leader can put forth their point of view. The Congress party is deciding their poll candidates after conducting a survey and it will be seen in the upcoming bypolls how the decision made by the party was correct.

Political analyst Ravindra Vyas said that the big weapon of the Congress to attack the BJP was the issue of inducting those who "defected to other parties" but now it was doing the same thing. In such a situation where discontent within the party is brewing, the Congress' blistering attack on those "switching party loyalties" was also growing weak.