BHOPAL: The polling on most sought after seats of the state will take place on Sunday. After 13 of the 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh voted in the previous two phases, quite a few bigwigs are in the fray as eight more seats -Bhopal, Guna, Morena, Gwalior, Bhind, Rajgarh, Sagar and Vidisha get ready to vote in the sixth phase of polling on May 12.
All eyes are set on the outcome from Bhopal seat which will witness an interesting contest between Congress’ Digvijay Singh and Malegaon blast case accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur. The contest became more intense after Pragya issuing controversial statement on former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare. The other bigwigs in the fray include former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Congress from Guna and Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar of the BJP from Morena.
Guna has been traditional seat of Scindia, which he is winning since 2002; however, the party took a lot of time in announcing his name from the seat. Scindia’s opponent is the BJP’s K P Yadav who is contesting his first parliamentary elections. The outcome of this seat will also decide Scindia’s dominance in the state. Morena seat is also in limelight as BJP replaced sitting MP Anoop Mishra, who is a nephew of late prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and fielded Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar from the seat. Tomar, who was MP from Morena, had contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Gwalior seat.
Tomar is pitted against the Congress’ Ramniwas Rawat and the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Kartar Singh Bhadana. In Gwalior, the BJP has fielded Mayor Vivek Shejwalkar in place of Narendra Singh Tomar, while the Congress has reposed faith in Ashok Singh. Congress did well during assembly polls on Gwalior seat. The battle in Vidisha has lost some of its sheen after two-time sitting BJP MP and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj decided not to contest the Lok Sabha elections. The constituency had earlier sent Atal Bihari Vajpayee and ex-Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to the Lok Sabha. A stronghold of the BJP which has retained it for 30 years, Vidisha will this time witness a contest between two debutants — BJP’s Ramakant Bhargava and Shailendra Singh of the Congress.
Budhni assembly area, which belongs to former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh, comes under Vidisha Lok Sabha seat. The BJP has replaced the sitting MPs in Sagar and Bhind while retaining its candidate in Rajgarh. Rajgarh is home turf of former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh. Singh got Mona Sustani get ticket from Congress, she is contesting against BJP’s sitting MP Raodmal Nagar. The outcome of this seat has become important as minister Jaivardhan Singh and Priyavrat Singh also worked hard in the elections.
Former minister Bhupendra Singh got Rajbahadur Singh in Sagar get ticket from BJP. Singh’s prestige is at stake here. Congress has fielded Prabhu Singh Thakur from the constituency. Congress has fielded Devashish Jararia from Bhind. Jararia is known for his pro-Dalit image. Jararia is the youngest candidate across the state. BJP has fielded Sandhya Rai from this seat. The elections on this seat has somewhat taken the shape of scheduled caste candidate versus all.
