BHOPAL: Pre-poll violence hit Pichhore assembly constituency of Shivpuri district in Gwalior-Chambal region of assembly polls-bound Madhya Pradesh on Sunday afternoon. Ruling BJP candidate Pritam Lodhi, who was campaigning along with supporters in Kararkheda village, came under attack allegedly by supporters of sitting Congress MLA KP Singh ‘Kakkaju,’ resulting in injuries to at least six BJP workers.
Lodhi alleged that the attack, which happened in Kakkaju’s native village Kararkheda in the afternoon, was carried out by the sitting Congress MLA’s supporters. “Sensing a certain defeat for the Congress in the November 17 elections, Kakkaju carried out the attack. His supporters attacked our vehicles with stones and also fired on the motorcade, damaging many vehicles and also injuring six-eight workers,” the BJP candidate alleged.
The opposition Congress party workers, however, claimed that it was Lodhi’s supporters who started the violence in the village, during campaigning.
Lodhi, a distant relative of ex-CM and senior BJP leader Uma Bharti, is contesting for the third time in succession on the ruling party ticket from Pichhore. He had lost the 2018 election to six-time sitting MLA KP Singh, a Digvijaya Singh loyalist, by less than 3,000 votes.
Kakkaju has been fielded by the Congress this time from the adjoining Shivpuri seat of the same Shivpuri district, while an ex-BJP man, but now the six-time MLA’s loyalist Arvind Lodhi is the Congress candidate against Pritam Lodhi from Pichhore seat.
Though Pritam Lodhi was initially being seen to be having a clear edge in the battle of Lodhis in Pichhore, Congress candidate Arvind Lodhi has made his way back over the last few days, largely on the basis of turning the contest into a local vs outsider poll battle.
While Arvind Lodhi is a native of the same constituency, Pritam Lodhi actually hails from the neighbouring Gwalior district. Even in the adjoining Shivpuri seat, the battle between Pichhore’s sixth-time MLA KP Singh and former MLA and BJP candidate Devendra Jain, is being dubbed by the BJP as local vs outsider battle as Pritam Lodhi hails from Pichhore and not the Shivpuri constituency.