Datia bypoll: Congress fields Ghanshyam Singh; Narottam Mishra meets MP CM as supporters protest

Bhopal, July 11 (PTI) The Congress on Saturday nominated former MLA Ghanshyam Singh to take on the BJP's Ashutosh Tiwari in the July 30 byelection to Datia assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh, while the ruling party faced violent protests by the supporters of veteran leader Narottam Mishra who was denied the ticket. Mishra, a former home minister, met Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, state BJP president Hemant Khandelwal and the party's regional organisational general secretary Ajay Jamwal. Preparations for the election and organisational matters were discussed at the meeting, the BJP said in a statement. It was decided at the meeting that the organisation was supreme and all workers stood firmly behind its decisions. The resignations tendered by some party workers was an emotional reaction and they would not be accepted, it said. All its workers would campaign unitedly to ensure Tiwari's victory by a huge margin, the BJP said. The ruling party on Friday announced Tiwari's candidature, overlooking Mishra who has represented the constituency in the past. The decision triggered protests by Mishra's supporters, who blocked National Highway-44 for nearly 12 hours. Several police personnel, including the Datia superintendent of police, were injured in clashes and stone-pelting. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters and detained several of them. State minister Kailash Vijayvargiya ruled out any change in the BJP candidate, saying the party has no tradition of replacing a nominee after the ticket is announced. The bypoll was necessitated after Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti lost his Assembly membership following his conviction in a cheating case. Polling is scheduled for July 30 and counting of votes will take place on August 3. Mishra told reporters that he will accompany Tiwari the day after tomorrow to file nomination papers in Datia. "I have told them (his supporter) to keep calm. Normalcy is returning in Datia, " Mishra said. "Narottam Mishra is our senior leader. Under his leadership we will fight elections and come out with flying colours," MP BJP chief Khandelwal said in a video message. Congress candidate Ghanashyam Singh, 72, belongs to the erstwhile Datia royal family and is considered an influential political figure in the district. His father, Maharaj Krishna Singh Ju Deo, was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Bhind-Datia constituency on a Congress ticket in 1984. Ghanshyam Singh first won the Datia assembly seat in 1993 by defeating BJP candidate Shambhu Dayal Tiwari. After being denied a ticket in 1998, Singh returned to the assembly from Datia in 2003 by defeating Avdesh Nayak. He lost to Narottam Mishra in the 2008 assembly election. Singh unsuccessfully contested from Sevda in 2013 before winning the seat in 2018. However, he lost the 2023 assembly election to BJP's Pradeep Agrawal. "I am going to win the bypoll. I will work for the development of the constituency and focus on eradicating the politics of witch-hunt and casteism plaguing Datia," Singh told PTI over phone. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), meanwhile, offered a ticket to Mishra for the byelection. Sunil Sharma, the MP head of Sena (UBT), said that if Mishra accepted the offer party president and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and others would campaign for him. PTI LAL MAS HWP COR ARU NR KRK