Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 29
Currently present on just two of the 72 parliamentary seats that witnessed elections today, the Congress is hoping to make substantial gains in the fourth phase of polling even as the NDA is confident of defending most of its 56 segments.
Among the LS constituencies that saw polling today, the Congress at present represents only two — Chhindwara held by Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath and Baharampur held by former Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Choudhry.
“When you have hit rock bottom, you have nowhere to go but up. That is the law of nature. The same holds good for the BJP which peaked in 2014 and will slide now,” said a senior Congress strategist as 17 seats in Maharashtra, 13 each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West Bengal, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand and part of Anantnag constituency in J&K saw elections today.
Among all the fourth phase states, the Congress is banking most on Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where it wrested power from the BJP in the 2018 state elections.
Rajasthan Chief Minister and Congress veteran Ashok Gehlot has been pursuing Mission 25 and Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath has planned Mission 29.
As of today, the Congress does not have any MP in the 13 Rajasthan parliamentary segments that witnessed elections in the fourth phase today. In Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath, the sitting CM, has vacated the seat for son Nakul and will fight an Assembly bypoll.
In MP’s 29 segments, the Congress has only three sitting MPs today – in Chhindwara, Guna (Jyotiraditya Scindia) and Ratlam tribal seat (Kantilal Bhuria). “There is a lot to gain in Rajasthan and we are confident of repeating our performance of the 2018 state elections here. For me, all the seats are important though my son is contesting from Jodhpur,” said Ashok Gehlot whose son Vaibhav Gehlot was in the fray today from Jodhpur, a seat his father represented five times.
Vaibhav faced off with sitting Jodhpur MP and minister Gajendra Shekhawat. Another Congress stalwart whose fate will be tested in the fourth phase is Manvendra Singh, the son of jilted former NDA minister Jaswant Singh. Manvendra, who left the BJP for the Congress in September last on the eve of the Rajasthan elections, is in the race from Barmer.
In Maharashtra too, Congress is hoping to register successes with Milind Deora and Urmila Matondkar in the race today. The Congress leaders are likewise confident in UP’s fourth phase seats where former ministers Salman Khurshid, Jitin Prasad and Sriprakash Jaiswal are contesting in Farukhabad, Dhaurahra and Kanpur. All three had lost their seats in 2014.
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2DFS2qv
via Today’s News Headlines
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