Bhopal: Shahdol seat may see face-off between two women turncoats

Bhopal: Shahdol seat may see face-off between two women turncoats

FPJ BureauUpdated: Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 12:49 AM IST
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BHOPAL: It could well be a battle between two turncoat women politicians in tribal dominated Shahdol seat which will go to polls on April 29– the first of the four phases of general elections in the central Indian state. The two turncoats’, shifting their allegiance to their parent parities had joined the BJP and Congress respectively.

Congress’ popular face in the Vidhya region and ex-BJP MLA Pramila Singh might be pitted against each other from Shahdol constituency, one of the six seats reserved for scheduled tribe candidates in MP. Days ahead of Lok Sabha election, Himadri Singh, had joined BJP, while just before Assembly elections BJP MLA Pramila Singh from Jaisinghnagar constituency in Shahdol district had switched over to Congress camp.

Himadri, – daughter of two-term former Congress MPs Dalvir Singh and Rajesh Nandini, Himadri Singh- had contested the 2016 Shahdol Parliamentary by-election on a Congress ticket but lost to BJP’s tribal strongman and ex-MP minister Gyan Singh. The former Congress leader has now donned the BJP colours, after joining the saffron party at state BJP headquarters in Bhopal on Wednesday evening.

Pramila Singh, had won the 2013 assembly polls as BJP candidate from Jaisinghnagar (one of the eight assembly segments forming Shahdol LS constituency) but had joined Congress just before 2018 assembly polls after being denied BJP ticket from Jaisinghnagar seat. She is now the frontrunner for Congress ticket from Shahdol LS constituency. Shahdol Lok Sabha seat which is spread across four districts, Shahdol, Anuppur, Umaria and Katni has been won six times each by Congress and BJP.

For the Congress, Himadri Singh’s father Dalbir Singh (a minister of state in the erstwhile PV Narsimha Rao government in 1991) won the seat thrice- 1980, 1984 and 1991; while his wife Rajesh Nandini Singh bagged the seat in 2009. For the BJP, the seat has been won by two tribal strongmen, Dalpat Singh Paraste in 1999, 2004 and 2014 and by Gyan Singh 1996, 1998 and 2016-by election.

In a significant political development, the 31-year-old Himadri Singh left the Congress and joined the BJP in Bhopal on Wednesday evening. The daughter of Congress leader parents, Himadri was married to BJP leader Narendra Singh Marawi in 2017, just a few months after she lost the Shahdol Lok Sabha by-poll as Congress candidate against BJP’s Gyan Singh by over 60,000 votes.

“My parents were Congress MPs and I too had contested Lok Sabha bypolls on a Congress ticket in 2016. But, as I am married now and have a new family, all of whom are with the BJP, I decided to join the saffron party,” Himadri said after joining the BJP at state party HQ in Bhopal on Wednesday. The BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agarwal informed that “The distribution of the tickets are to be decide by the central leadership and if they find Himadari as a suitable candidate they can give the ticket; in the party anyone can seek the ticket”.

The BJP think tank has been scouting for a new and strong candidate from the seat also keeping in mind the fact that the party’s winning margin from the seat which was 2.5 lakh in 2014 had shrunk drastically to 60,000 in the 2016 by-election. The Congress state media vice president Bhupendra Gupta also has the same opinion, “The Congress party is going to win the Shahdol seat, the distribution of the ticket will be done by the Central Committee and if the ticket is given to Pramila Singh she can won the election”.

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