Mandla (Madhya Pradesh): Madhya Pradesh is all set to hold the first round of voting for the Lok Sabha Election 2024, on April 19. Voting will begin in six seats in the state, including Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Mandla, Balaghat, and Chhindwara, at 7 a.m. on Friday and will continue till 6 p.m.
BJP has fielded Union Minister and six-term MP from ST-reserved Mandla Lok Sabha seat, Faggan Singh Kulaste, against Congress' Dindori MLA Omkar Singh Markam.
Notably, Kulaste is facing Markam as his poll rival for the second time.
However, Kulaste faced defeat by 9,723 votes in the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections 2023 against Congress candidate Chainsingh Warkade.
Tough battle for Union Minister Kulaste – ‘Modi Factor’ may work
The Mandla Lok Sabha seat, includes eight assembly segments – Shahpura, Niwas, Lakhnadon, Dindori, Mandla, Gotegaon, Bichhiya, and Kevalari, covering Dindori, Mandla, and parts of Seoni and Narsinghpur districts, six reserved for the Scheduled Tribes and one for the Scheduled Caste candidates.
In the 2023 state polls, the Congress won five of the eight segments, though the collective victory margin was only 16,000 votes.
Political analysts say that Kulaste, who lost the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections in 2023, may find it difficult to overcome the anti-incumbency sentiment in Mandla during this Lok Sabha election campaign. However, Congress argued that Kulaste has not contributed to the welfare of tribal people, despite the BJP and analysts believing the "Modi factor" would work in his favour.
What Does Data Say?
2019 Lok Sabha results
Kulaste won the 2019 Lok Sabha election by a margin of around 98,000 votes, defeating Congress' Kamal Singh Marawi. The number of votes earned by BJP counted 7.37 lakh (48.59%), whereas, Congress could get only 6.39 lakh (42.15%) votes.
Mandla Lok Sabha Election 2019 detailed results. | ECI
2014 Lok Sabha results
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Kulaste defeated Omkar Singh Markam by a margin of 1.10 lakh votes. The vote count of BJP was 5.84 lakh (38.6%), however, for Congress it remained 4.75 lakh (31.32%).
2009 Lok Sabha Results
In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Congress' Basori Singh Masram defeated Faggan Singh Kulaste from Mandla by around 65,000 votes. Masram, representing INC received 3.91 lakh (25.78%) votes. On the other hand, Kulaste could get only 3.26 lakh (21.49%) votes.
No victory for GGP
In the Mandla seat, the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) has not yet succeeded. The GGP's candidates, Anuj Ganga Singh in 2014 and Ramgulam Uikey in 2019, received about 56,000 and 49,000 votes, respectively.
This time, Mahesh Kumar Batti, a lawyer from Lakhnadon town, has been fielded by the GGP.
Number of voters
The Mandla Lok Sabha seat has 20,97,051 lakh voters, including 10,48,096 lakh men, 10,48,930 women and 25 third gender persons. The results for Mandla Lok Sabha Seat will be declared on June 4, 2024.
