Panna (Madhya Pradesh), April 3: Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief VD Sharma filed his nomination papers from Khajuraho parliamentary seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections at Panna collector office on Wednesday.

Union Minister Smriti Irani, state cabinet minister Prahlad Singh Patel, BJP MLAs Brijendra Pratap Singh and Sanjay Pathak were present on the occasion.

Minister Irani told ANI, "Today, I got the opportunity to participate in the nomination of Madhya Pradesh BJP chief VD Sharma. Congress has accepted its defeat even before voting in this Lok Sabha seat. This is the reason Congress is not contesting from this seat."

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav also targeted the Congress party saying as soon as the BJP had announced its candidate from Khajuraho, Congress people left the field.

"I am happy that as soon as BJP announced its candidate from Khajuraho, Congress people left the field and were not able to find a candidate. Seeing its defeat, Congress handed over this seat to the Samajwadi party (SP). Even the SP is also not able to decide its candidate from here. SP announced its one candidate here and then again changed it," CM said.

"I think the hard work of our BJP chief and the love of the people is telling that BJP's victory is certain here," he added.

Notably, Khajuraho is Madhya Pradesh's only constituency assigned to Samajwadi Party, a member of the INDIA bloc, as part of a seat-sharing deal with the Congress.

SP initially fielded Manoj Yadav for the Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency and later replaced its candidate as Meera Deepak.

Khajuraho will go to poll in the second phase on April 26 with six other parliamentary seats in the state. The nomination for the second phase was started on March 28 and April 4 would be the last date to file papers. Besides, the last date for withdrawal of candidature for the second phase of polls will be April 8.

Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh are scheduled to be held in the first four phases of the total seven phases dated April 19, April 26, May 7, and May 13.

The votes will be counted on June 4.

(ANI)