Congress Fields Former Minister Kamaleshwar Patel From Sidhi Constituency (image@mramaleshwar)

The Indian National Congress fielded former minister Kamaleshwar Patel from Sidhi Parliamentary constituency. He will be contesting against BJP’s Dr Rajesh Mishra. Patel was first elected as an MLA from the Sihawal Vidhan Sabha in 2013. During the 2018 election, he retained the seat.

However, he lost the seat during the 2023 assembly election to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Vishwamitra Pathak. He also served as the cabinet minister in the state government of Madhya Pradesh. He served as the minister of Panchayat and Rural Development in Madhya Pradesh from December 2018 to March 2020.

Earlier in 2017, the Madhya Pradesh High Court instructed to register FIR against Patel. The move was regarding a pending case against him for giving false affidavit in the election petition. Patel allegedly submitted a false health certificate in the High Court. During the time, it was alleged that the elected Congress MLAs were making various excuses to prolong the election petition filed against them. And following this the MLA s allegedly excused their attendance every time by pretending to be sick and submitting fake medical certificates.

Amidst the ongoing electoral bond mayhem, the candidates are required to submit report on their financial status to the election commission. It is said that Patel is three times richer than Mishra. As per the affidavit submitted to the election commission, Patel and his spouse possess liquid and immovable asset of worth Rs 39.01 crore. Where as Mishra and his spouse owns liquid and immovable assets worth of Rs 13.04 crore.