Congress has accepted defeat even before voting: Smriti Irani in Panna

Panna (Madhya Pradesh) [India], April 3 : Union Minister of Women and Child Development of India and BJP leader Smriti Irani on Wednesday campaigned in Madhya Pradesh's Panna for BJP leader VD Sharma, who is contesting from the Khajuraho constituency and asserted that Congress has accepted its "defeat" even before voting in this Lok Sabha seat.
"Congress has accepted its defeat even before voting in this Lok Sabha seat. This is the reason Congress is not contesting from this seat," said Smriti Irani.
Earlier today, 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.
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. The Congress has accepted its defeat even before voting in this Lok Sabha seat. This is the reason Congress is not contesting from this seat."
Notably, Khajuraho is Madhya Pradesh's only constituency assigned to the 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 the polls in the second phase on April 26 with six other parliamentary seats in the state.
The nomination for the second phase 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 the 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.