Big names try their luck in Madhya Pradesh’s battle royale
Political fortunes of two former Chief Ministers and a Union Home Minister and the control of the crucial Gwalior-Chambal region will be at stake when voters from nine constituencies in Madhya Pradesh vote on May 7.
In Phase 3 of the election in the State, BJP candidate Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was the State’s longest serving Chief Minister, is returning to his traditional Vidisha constituency after nearly 20 years.
Another former Chief Minister, Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh, is contesting from his home turf Rajgarh after 30 years. Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who lost his family seat of Guna as a Congress candidate in 2019, is hoping to regain the constituency on BJP ticket.
Apart from these seats, Morena, Bhind (SC) and Gwalior seats of the crucial Gwalior-Chambal belt, and Bhopal, Sagar, and Betul (ST) will also vote on May 7.
At present, all the nine seats are held by the ruling BJP, but emerging equations from some constituencies have led observers to believe that the upcoming phase could be the Congress’ best shot in the State.
The party has intensied its campaigning for the third phase with Rahul Gandhi holding a rally in Bhind and warning voters that the BJP will “throw away” the Constitution if it returns to power.
From the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and national president J.P. Nadda have campaigned in Morena, Betul and Rajgarh.
Diverse regions
Spread across a large portion of the State, the constituencies fall under dierent regions and have varying demography and issues. The northern-most Gwalior-Chambal region that shares boundaries with Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan is heavily in¡uenced by caste politics. Unemployment, poverty and migration are the key issues in the tribal-dominated Betul.
Mr. Chouhan had vacated the Vidisha constituency in 2005 when he was chosen to lead the BJP’s government in the State. The 65-year-old held the State’s top post until 2023, barring a 15-month period when the Congress was in power from 2018 to 2020. And though he was not declared the BJP’s face in the 2023 Assembly election, Mr. Chouhan is credited to have deed the anti-incumbency trend and led the party to a resounding majority.
However, Mr. Chouhan, fondly called Mama, was replaced as Chief Minister with a younger face, Ujjain MLA Mohan Yadav. After a few months of suspense over his future role, Mr. Chouhan is back for a sixth term from Vidisha, a constituency he held from 1991 to 2005. He is facing senior Congress leader Bhanu Pratap Sharma, 77, who represented the seat from 1980 to 1984.
Another stalwart, Mr. Singh is working to reignite his old connect in Rajgarh as he takes on the BJP’s two-time MP Rodmal Nagar who is facing anti-incumbency sentiments.
Mr. Singh, fondly called Raja Saheb, hails from the erstwhile royal family of Rajgarh’s Raghogarh and his family has long enjoyed a dominance in the region as he held the seat for two terms and his brother Laxman Singh held it for ve terms, including once with the BJP.
Mr. Singh, 77, known for his hold on the Congress’ organisation across the State, is using a localised approach to campaign, while also trying to strike an emotional chord declaring that this is his last election.
The Congress leader, however, has an uphill task in bridging Mr. Nagar’s 2019 victory margin of 4.31 lakh as he will look to overcome the BJP’s popularity among the OBCs in the constituency and the Hindutva factor.
Reclaiming the bastion
In Guna, Mr. Scindia, the scion of the erstwhile Gwalior kingdom, looks to reclaim his family’s bastion that he had lost in 2019 when he was with the Congress.
This will be Mr. Scindia’s rst election since he shifted to the BJP in March 2020, leading a rebellion with 22 MLAs to bring down the Kamal Nath-led Congress government.
The BJP elded him after denying ticket to incumbent MP K.P. Yadav, who had defeated Mr. Scindia last time. In a replication of the BJP’s 2019 strategy, the Congress has elded Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav, who had switched sides just before the 2023 Assembly election, hoping to consolidate votes of the Yadav community.
While Mr. Singh and Mr. Scindia have limited themselves to campaigning in their respective constituencies, Mr. Chouhan has been touring the State to campaign for party candidates as the people in Vidisha say that he appears comfortable in one of BJP’s safest seats in the State.
One of the most keenly watched contest will be from Morena in the Chambal belt as the Congress hopes to wrest the seat from the BJP after nearly three decades. The seat is locked in a three-way ght with the BSP, despite the downward trend in its vote share, continuing to have a signicance presence in the area.
Bhind (SC) and Gwalior are expected to see caste equations play a major role in the polls with voters and local BJP leaders admitting that the Congress’ candidate selection has made the contests more intense.