Anup Dutta
Bhopal, April 4
Voters of two prestigious parliamentary constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, Indore and Bhopal, are in the grip of suspense as to who will be the BJP candidates for these seats. Expectations, particularly of BJP supporters, were that Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who has won the Indore Lok Sabha seat eight times in a row since 1989, would be fielded yet again.
Riding on the Modi wave, Mahajan had registered a thumping victory with a margin of 4.66 lakh votes against her rival Satyanarayan Patel of the Congress. Mahajan’s supporters are surprised and alarmed over the delay in her name being cleared. Indore BJP city president Gopikrishna Nema said: “Ticket allotment is decided by the party’s parliamentary board. Party workers and leaders are united in giving a tough fight to opponents. As per the 2018 Assembly election pattern, we have an edge of about 1 lakh votes in the eight Assembly constituencies of the Indore Lok Sabha seat.”
Meanwhile, Mahajan has planned 100 meetings ahead of the polls to meet over 50,000 party workers in rural parts of the district. “I am a BJP worker and irrespective of whether I get the ticket or not, I will continue to work for the people,” she told mediapersons.
The Congress is yet to finalise its candidate for the Indore Lok Sabha seat. It has announced Digvijaya Singh as its candidate for the Bhopal seat. The Bhopal contest will be interesting. The Congress hasn’t won the seat since 1989, when retired Chief Secretary Susheel Chandra Verma defeated Congress candidate and cricket legend Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi by over 80,000 votes.
Sources in the BJP told The Tribune that the RSS was taking a keen interest in Bhopal because of Digvijaya’s candidature. “This time, the RSS is on the driver’s seat and is closely monitoring the report card of probable candidates and the sitting MP. Its ticket manthan session is underway,” said a senior BJP leader.
Emboldened by the BJP’s delay in picking a candidate for Bhopal, Congress spokespersosn JP Dhanopiya claimed: “Digvijaya is a national leader. The BJP does not have a leader of this stature.”
The Congress central election committee has declared 12 candidates in MP. It has fielded CM Kamal Nath’s son Nakul from Chhindwara, former Leader of the Opposition and son of senior Congress leader Ajay Singh Rahul from Sidhi and former state chief Arun Yadav from Khandwa.
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2G0wXsq
via Today’s News Headlines
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