Bhopal. November 8: In another setback to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Madhya Pradesh, former state minister and five-time member of parliament Sartaj Singh has joined the Congress ahead of the assembly elections. Singh will be contesting the assembly elections from Hoshangabad assembly constituency on a Congress ticket. Singh also served as a union minister for health in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government.

The party today declared its fifth list of candidates. The list includes the names of nominees being fielded by the party in 29 constituencies. With this list, the party has revealed its candidates on 229 seats out of 230. Meanwhile, the ruling BJP has released the names of 228 candidates. The last date to file the nominations is tomorrow, November 9.

Earlier this month, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's brother-in-law Sanjay Singh Masani joined the opposition party. Brother of Chouhan's wife Sadhana, Masani, was formally inducted into the party in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath. Masani, was said to be peeved at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for denying him a ticket for the Assembly polls. Reportedly, he wanted to contest from Waraseoni in Balaghat district from where the BJP has fielded sitting MLA Yogendra Nirmal.

Madhya Pradesh is undergoing assembly election on November 28 along with Mizoram. Meanwhile, the first phase of voting for 18 seats in Chhatisgarh will be conducted on November 12 and the second phase of votes will be polled on remaining 72 seats on November 20. The voting in Rajasthan and Telangana will take place on December 7. The result of the voting for all the five states will be declared on December 11.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 08, 2018 07:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).