BJP’s tried war horses are pitted against Congress newbies in the seven seats of Madhya Pradesh that go to polls in fifth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections on May 6.
This is the second phase of the LS contests for Madhya Pradesh and all the seven seats in contest—Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Rewa, Satna, Hoshangabad and Betul—are currently held by the BJP. The party has reposed its confidence on five of the seven sitting members of parliament (MPs), while opponent Congress that has been kept out of the seats for considerable period now, has decided to go with fresh faces.
Political watchers say that ground trend suggest that the Congress is in a position to wrest at least one seat, Satna, if not others in this phase. Many seats are closely contested and among them are Tikamgarh, from where union minister Virendra Kumar (Khatik), a six-time MP, is contesting.
Two other interesting seats are Khajuraho and Betul, where the BJP has given tickets to staunch Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) men Vishnu Dutt Sharma and Durgadas Uike, respectively, as against their sitting MPs.
In both these seats, the Congress has fielded interesting candidates. In Khajuraho, Kavita Singh, wife of Congress MLA Vikram Singh Nati Raja (scion of erstwhile Chhatarpur royal family), is the contestant, while in Betul young lawyer Ramu Tekam, a student leader, has been pitted against BJP's Uike.
Tikamgarh
Tikamgarh, a scheduled caste (SC) reserved seat that came into existence in the year 2008, has seen BJP’s Virendra Kumar as its representative during the past two terms. Kumar, Union minister of state in Modi cabinet, earlier won from Sagar constituency in four consecutive Lok Sabha polls from 1996 to 2004. This makes him a veteran in the region.
But pitted against him this time is Congress fresh face Kiran Ahirwar, daughter of ex-IAS officer R.N. Bairwa, considered close to former CM Digvijaya Singh. Kiran’s husband is also a government officer and her father-in-law and brother-in-law are elected panchayat representatives. But she has no political experience, which made her choice a surprise one for the local Congress workers.
The factor that makes this contest considerably tight is the candidature of R.D. Prajapati, a former BJP MLA who recently joined the SP disgruntled with favouritism in the BJP. “Prajapati might eat into BJP votes and make the contest triangular though last time Virendra Kumar won quite comfortably (margin of 2.08 lakh votes),” Manish Dixit, a senior journalist said.
Satna
The Satna constituency has become interesting because of the fact that the three-time sitting MP Ganesh Singh is facing strong anti-incumbency. The fact that he won the 2014 LS polls by a slender margin of 8,688 votes against Congress’s
Ajay Singh (stalwart late Arjun Singh’s son and ex-leader of opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly) makes his position difficult this time.
Ajay Singh has shifted to neighbouring Sidhi seat this time and the Congress has fielded Brahmin face Rajaram Tripathi, who had earlier contested as a Samajwadi Party contestant from the seat in 2009 elections. The Congress is working strongly in the seat and wage a very tight fight with the BJP, political watchers said.
Other contests
The other contests are between BJP’s four-time MP and ex-Union minister Prahlad Patel against Congress greenhorn Pratap Lodhi in Damoh seat, BJP’s two-time MP Rao Udai Pratap Singh against Congress’s Shailendra Diwan in Hoshangabad and BJP’s sitting MP Janardan Mishra against Siddharth Tiwari of Congress.