BHOPAL: Six seats of eastern Madhya Pradesh’s tribal-dominated Mahakoshal and Vindhya region will go to polls in the first phase on April 19. The six seats include Chhindwara, which since 1980 has become synonymous with Congress politician Kamal Nath and Mandla-ST from where Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste is eyeing a seventh term in Parliament.
Though the BJP won five out of the six seats — Mandla-ST, Sidhi, Balaghat, Jabalpur and Shahdol-ST — in 2019, if the 2023 assembly poll results are to be taken into account, the contest could be tough, especially on Chhindwara, Mandla-ST and Balaghat.
In Chhindwara (the lone Lok Sabha seat won by Congress in MP in 2019), Nakul Nath, the MP son of Kamal Nath, is facing BJP’s district president Vivek Sahu ‘Bunty’.
In Mandla-ST, Union minister and six-time BJP MP Faggan Singh Kulaste takes on ex-minister and four-time Congress MLA from Dindori-ST Omkar Sigh Markam, which will be a re-run of the 2014 contest, when Kulaste had won by more than 1 lakh votes. However, the anti-incumbency against Kulaste, which saw him lose the recent assembly poll from his home seat Niwas-ST brightens the Congress prospects. Adding to Kulaste’s woes is the 90-km patch Jabalpur-Mandla highway, which is incomplete since the last 10 years.
In the adjoining Balaghat seat, the BJP and Congress have both fielded new faces, Bharti Pardhi and Samrat Saraswat, respectively. Competing with them is veteran politician and ex-MP Kankar Munjare, who is fighting as a BSP nominee after denial of ticket by the Congress.
According to analysts, the contest may ultimately boil down to caste lines, where the lone OBC Pawar caste candidate Bharti Pardhi is banking on her caste voters (25%). She is also eyeing to dent into 15% Lodhi voters on the back of the influence of her political mentor and MP minister Prahlad Patel, who is from the same OBC caste. Congress candidate Samrat Saraswat who comes from the Kshatriya caste is eyeing consolidation of all non-Pawar caste voters against the BJP nominee.
In Jabalpur seat too where the BJP has been unbeaten since 1996, the fight will be between two new faces – Ashish Dube (BJP) and Dinesh Yadav (Congress). While both are known for their organisational skills, they are contesting their first Lol Sabha polls. According to analysts, the Ram temple effect can best be felt in Jabalpur. Among five seats of the first phase which were won by the BJP in 2019, Jabalpur was won by the biggest margin of 4.54 lakh by four-time winner Rakesh Singh, now PWD minister in MP.
The remaining two seats — Shahdol-ST and Sidhi — are part of the Vindhya region, which neighbours Chhattisgarh on one side and eastern UP on the other. In Shahdol-ST, ex-Congress leader and first-time BJP MP Himadri Singh is taking on three-time Congress MLA Phoondelal Marko, who despite suffering from a kidney infection is fighting hard against his ex-partymate. But the work done by the Modi government in terms of building railway infrastructure as also the particularly vulnerable tribal group Baiga tribe specific initiatives may give Singh an edge. Besides, the penetration of RSS into Shahdol may also help Singh.
The Sidhi seat of Vindhya region, which BJP’s Riti Pathak won last two times by big margins, also promises to throw an interesting contest, more on caste lines, just like seats of adjoining eastern UP. In Sidhi, the BJP has fielded new face Dr Rajesh Mishra (whose family owns a prominent hospital in Sidhi town). He’s not just taking on young Patel leader, CWC member and ex-minister Kamleshwar Patel, but also BJP rebel and ex-Rajya Sabha member Ajay Pratap Singh, contesting as GGP candidate. Adding to Mishra’s problems is independent candidate Laxman Singh Bains.