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Congress candidate hurt in group clash

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL NOV. 30. After the curtain had come down on the high-intensity poll campaign last evening in the State, the general atmosphere of peace in the Bhopal South Assembly segment was jeopardised when groups of party workers belonging to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party were engaged in a violent clash at Ambedkar Nagar in the T.T. Nagar area this past night. Over half a dozen persons, including the Congress candidate, P.C. Sharma, were injured in the heavy stone pelting from both sides. Mr. Sharma, who received head injuries was taken to hospital and the disturbed area was cordoned off by the Police.

Last night's violence had its own filter-down effect and minor clashes were reported today from Itwara in old Bhopal area and Ishwar Nagar, a large settlement of weaker sections in the new Bhopal area. Ishwar Nagar, which is a dense residential cluster, has been christened after a local Congress leader.

The Congress candidate from Bhopal South is a sitting MLA and his main opponent is the former Mayor and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, Uma Shankar Gupta.

In the adjacent Bhopal North constituency, the voters are highly polarised with the majority Hindu community openly backing the BJP candidate, Rameshwar Sharma and the Muslims, who constitute a huge vote bank in this area, are apparently divided between the Congress candidate, Arif Aqueel and the Samajwadi Party candidate, Arif Masood.

The BJP is banking heavily on the anti-incumbency factor and its poll managers feel that a heavy polling tomorrow would bring them better results across the State. On the eve of polling, the Congress party leaders were, however, busy negating the pre-poll survey results that have predicted BJP's victory in Madhya Pradesh.

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