Bhopal, Jun 10 (IANS): Madhya Pradesh Congress will field three sitting MLAs and eight women, including a Muslim candidate, for 15 Mayoral posts in the forthcoming municipal elections.

On Thursday night, the state Congress Committee issued a list of candidates.

Congress MLA Sanjay Shukla is the party's candidate from Indore, while former Mayor and Mahila Congress president of the state Congress Vibha Patel will contest from Bhopal. Two other sitting MLAs -- Sidarth Kushwaha (Satna) and Mahesh Parmar (Tarana) -- are candidates from Satna and Ujjain respectively.

Jagat Bahaur Singh, who is district president, has been chosen from Jabalpur. Sobha Sikarwar, (wife of MLA Satish Sikarwar) is being fielded from Gwalior, while Nidhi Jain, who is a wife of former Congress MLA, will contest from Sagar.

While Neha Khandelwal will be in the fray from Katni, Arvind Singh Chandel from Singrauli, Shahnaz Ansari in Burhanpur, Vikram Ahake will contest from Chhindwara, Ajay Mishra from Rewa, Kavita Ramesh Vyash Dewas, Shardha Silanki and Asha Mishra from Morena and Khandwa respectively.

The party is yet to decide its candidate from Ratlam. Sources said the party would do so by June 15.

Meanwhile, the ruling BJP is yet to release the list of its candidates. In the 2015 urban local body polls, BJP had won all 16 seats. This time, Mayors of municipalities would be elected through direct voting.

Elections to the 16 municipal corporations across Madhya Pradesh comprising 884 wards will be held in two phases - on July 6 and the second phase on July 13. The counting of the votes will be held on July 17 for the first phase, while votes for the second phase will be held on July 18.

The nomination forms will be available from June 11 and the last date of filing the nominations is June 18. The last date for taking back nominations is June 22.

The elections to the nagar palikas and nagar parishads will also be held in two phases. The voting will be held between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.