BHOPAL: Assembly by-elections are due in the Jaura constituency in Morena district and Agar in Agar district. The ruling Congress is keen to win both the polls. Ministers and senior Congress leaders have already descended on the two constituencies and efforts are being made to woo all sections of the electorate.
To ensure that the BJP doesn’t make farm loan waiver an issue in the by-polls, the process of loan waiver has been expedited in the twin constituencies.
In fact, the government is endeavouring to ensure that all farm loans in Morena and Agar districts are waived before the notification for the polls is issued.
Loans of up to Rs 200,000 of 22,000 farmers in the two districts have to be waived. The agriculture department needs Rs 250 crore for the purpose. Reportedly, the finance department has sanctioned the requisite amount.
The Jaura seat has fallen vacant due to the death of Banwarilal Purohit of the Congress while bye-polls have been necessitated in Agar due to the demise of BJP’s Manohar Untwal.
Both had won from the twin constituencies in the 2018 Assembly polls. If the Congress manages to win both the bye-polls, its contingent in the Vidhan Sabha would become 116-strong, thus affording it a simple majority in the House. The ruling party had already finalised its strategy for annexing both the seats.
Cong leaders deployed
In Agar, minister in-charge Jaivardhan Singh would be leading the Congress’s poll effort. Priyavrat Singh has also been asked to focus on the by-polls. As the constituency is reserved for the SCs, the party has asked its leaders from the community to get cracking. Vipin Wankhede, who had lost in the Assembly polls to the BJP candidate, may be fielded by the party.
Though Lakhan Singh Yadav is the minister in-charge of the Morena district, ex-MP Jyotiradiyta Scindia will be overseeing the poll campaign of the Congress in Jaura. The party may nominate the son of former MLA Banwarilal Sharma as its candidate. Besides Scindia, cooperatives minister Govind Singh, Apex Bank administrator Ashok Singh and state Congress working president Ramniwas Rawat have also been drafted to ensure that the party’s candidate pips the BJP nominee to the post in the by-polls.
