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Wednesday, May 05, 2004

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Congress prestige at stake in M.P.

By Lalit Shastri

BHOPAL, MAY 4 . In the third phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections tomorrow, 1.52 crore voters would decide the fate of 139 candidates in the race for 12 of the 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh.

The 12 constituencies are Sagar (SC), Khajuraho, Damoh, Satna, Rewa, Sidhi (ST), Shahdol (ST), Balaghat, Mandla (ST), Jabalpur, Seoni and Chhindwara. The Bharatiya Janata Party had won nine of these 12 seats in the 1999 elections. In the dissolved House the Congress party represented Khajuraho, Rewa and Chhindwara seats won by the AICC spokesman, Satyavrat Chaturvedi; son of the former Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker, Sunderlal Tiwari; and the AICC general secretary, Kamal Nath, respectively.

In tomorrow's round of polling all eyes would be on Chhindwara as Mr. Kamal Nath faces a major challenge from the Union Minister, Prahlad Patel, who had been elected from Balaghat in the last election but has now chosen to confront the senior Congress leader on his home-turf.

Khajuraho is another key constituency where the BJP has fielded Ramkrishna Kusmaria, who had won the Damoh seat in the last election. Mr. Kusmaria has made the Khajuraho election very tough for Mr. Chaturvedi, who also faces the might of the Samajwadi Party candidate, Ashok Vir Vikram Singh (Bhaiya Raja) in what is being described as a triangular contest. The Khajuraho seat acquires special significance for the BJP since this seat was earlier represented by the State Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, who had shifted to Bhopal in the 1999 election and was representing the State Capital in Parliament till she led the BJP to victory in the State Assembly elections last year. The importance being given to Khajuraho by the BJP is also evident from the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's election rally at this historic temple city on Monday which marked the end of campaigning for the third round of polling in the State.

Besides these key constituencies, the BJP is also trying to maintain its supremacy in the reserved SC/ST constituencies. These are Sagar (SC), Sidhi (ST), Shahdol (ST) and Mandla (ST) that had all gone to the BJP in the last election.

Even though the electoral politics remains highly polarised between the BJP and the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, the third force in the form of Bahujan Samaj Party has tried to assert its presence in the constituencies bordering Uttar Pradesh in previous elections. Barring constituencies like Bhind and Guna that have a large border with Uttar Pradesh along with parts of the Gwalior and Morena constituencies that touch U.P., six constituencies -- Sagar, Khajuraho, Damoh, Satna, Rewa and Sidhi -- all bordering Uttar Pradesh are going to poll tomorrow. The Bahujan Samaj Party is leaving no stone unturned to maintain its support base in this area. Significantly, the BSP had its first MP elected from Satna in 1991.

Besides the BSP, the Samajwadi Party, after it has emerged as the second largest Opposition party in the State Assembly by winning 7 of the total 230 seats, is trying to broaden its support base in the State and more particularly in areas bordering Uttar Pradesh, where it is in power. The challenge that has been thrown by the Samajwadi Party as a third force, especially to the Congress party was made explicit by the senior Congress leader, Arjun Singh, here recently when he had told media persons that the Congress party cannot move ahead in its objective of consolidating the "secular votes'' if the Samajwadi Party refused to withdraw from the electoral race in the State.

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