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Journalism of Courage
In two days, six constituencies in Madhya Pradesh — Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Mandla, Balaghat, and Chhindwara — that comprise the state’s tribal belt will cast their vote.
Chhindwara was the lone seat in Madhya Pradesh that the Congress managed to win in 2019. This time, all eyes are on whether the party can retain it, especially in the face of a challenge being mounted to Chhindwara MP Nakul Nath, the son of former Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Over the past couple of months, the BJP state unit has gone all out to wean away Nath’s support bases and poach Congress loyalists, including three-time tribal MLA and sitting Chhindwara mayor Vikram Ahake. The party claims that 2,000 Congress leaders who were disgruntled with the Naths had joined the BJP. Nakul had won Chhindwara last time by a margin of 37,536 votes.
Historically, Madhya Pradesh’s estimated 21% tribal population was a base that the Congress nurtured. However, the BJP has slowly made inroads into these areas. The Assembly elections last November, when the BJP secured 163 of the 230 Assembly seats, further affirmed that this vote has been swinging towards the BJP. The BJP won 24 of 47 tribal seats in 2023, an improvement from 2018 when the party could win only 16 as compared to the Congress’s 30.
The BJP attributed this to welfare schemes, local governance and the celebration of tribal icons by top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Congress, meanwhile, had won 66 seats in the Assembly polls. In the Assembly constituencies that fall within the boundaries of the six seats voting in Phase 1, the party retained Chhindwara and four of the five seats in the Balaghat district. It also defeated former Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste from the Niwas seat.
The Congress believes these Assembly results are not reflective of the Lok Sabha elections and is hoping that it can retain Chhindwara.
Apart from Chhindwara, Mandla is another seat where the Congress sees a fighting chance. Here, the party’s four-time MLA, Omkar Singh Markam, is contesting against sitting BJP MP Faggan Singh Kulaste.
With anti-incumbency running high against Kulaste over the lack of development, the Congress hopes to play spoilsport.
In the rest of the seats, the BJP feels it doesn’t have much of a competition owing to a poor Congress organisation.
The BJP has once again fielded sitting Shahdol MP Himadri Singh, while on the Congress side is three-time MLA Phundelal Marko. In Sidhi, the ruling party has fielded Rajesh Mishra, who will take on Kamleshwar Patel. In Jabalpur, the BJP has fielded Ashish Dubey and the Congress has fielded Dinesh Yadav. In Balaghat, the BJP’s candidate is Bharti Paradi, while the Congress candidate is Samrat Saraswat.
