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Sharing their boundaries with Uttar Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions of Madhya Pradesh have many similarities with the neighbouring State - from dialects and culture to the prominence of caste factor in politics.
Five out of six seats of Madhya Pradesh that go to polls in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election on Friday fall in these regions. The six seats are Rewa and Satna of Vindhyachal; Khajuraho, Tikamgarh (SC) and Damoh of Bundelkhand; and Hoshangabad.
At present, all the six seats are held by the Bharatiya Janata Party whereas the Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) this time hopes to benefit from the caste equations, anti-incumbency against sitting MPs, and local issues.
Local leaders of the Opposition bloc, however, had been forced to lead their campaign on their own as among the national leaders only Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had campaigned here. Mr. Kharge held a rally in Satna last week as he filled in for party leader Rahul Gandhi, who could not make it due to health reasons.
On the other hand, the BJP’s campaigning has been led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president J.P. Nadda. Even on Wednesday, Mr. Modi held two rallies in Sagar that borders Damoh, and Betul that borders Hoshangabad. He capped it all off with a roadshow in capital Bhopal.
Meanwhile, fortunes of candidates in Khajuraho where State BJP chief V. D. Sharma is contesting, Tikamgarh where Union Minister Virendra Kumar Khateek is in fray, and Satna where four-term MP Ganesh Singh is battling retain his seat, will also be keenly watched.
The Khajuraho seat had made headlines recently when the nomination of Meera Yadav, INDIA bloc’s Samajwadi Party candidate, was rejected by the returning officer due to irregularities in her form, forcing the SP and Congress to extend their last-minute support to All India Forward Bloc candidate R.B. Prajapati, an ex-IAS officer. The rejection was slammed by both parties as “murder of democracy” by the ruling BJP.
Mr. Prajapati, however, has been campaigning with a focus on local issues with no top leader of the two parties coming to Khajuraho. He had received only 698 votes in the Chandla Assembly constituency in the 2023 Assembly election.
Tikamgarh seat, a BJP stronghold, came into existence only in 2008. Mr. Khateek, a seven-term MP (four times from Sagar and thrice from Tikamgarh), is again in fray from the ruling party. The Congress has fielded Pankaj Ahirwar, a youth leader, who will be contesting his first election and hopes to capitalise on the local anti-incumbency against Mr. Khateek. Apart from the Dalits, Other Backward Class (OBC) voters also constitute a sizeable chunk here.
Satna constituency has seen a three-way interesting contest throughout the campaigning ever since prominent Vindhya leader Narayan Tripathi entered the fray on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket. The four-term MP and BJP candidate, Mr. Singh is again locked in a similar contest against Congress’ Siddharth Kushwaha who defeated the former from Satna Assembly seat less than six months ago in the State Assembly election.
The seat has a significant upper caste population, especially Brahmins, and Mr. Tripathi, observers say, is likely to capitalise on this group.
Mr. Singh is believed to have been dented due to the triangular nature of the contest and he had lost to Mr. Kushwaha by over 4,000 votes in the previous Assembly election as the BSP had fielded a Brahmin candidate who had polled more than 33,000 votes.
Neighbouring Rewa is also witnessing a triangular fight which is believed to have gotten more intense after BSP supremo Mayawati held a rally in support of party candidate Abhishek Patel last week. While the BJP has again fielded its two-term MP Janardan Mishra from here, the Congress has nominated his long-time political rival Neelam Mishra, a former BJP MLA. While the two main parties have fielded Brahmin faces, the BSP hopes for the support of the OBC community, which also makes up a sizeable population here.
The BSP has had a strong presence on this seat and had won it in 2009.
Rewa is also the stronghold of Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla and Mr. Mishra is considered close to him. On the other hand, the Congress also deployed its battery of State leaders for campaigning in the constituency.
Damoh also awaits a fierce contest between two Lodhi candidates who hope for the support of the dominant community. The BJP has fielded former MLA Rahul Lodhi, who switched over from the Congress in 2020, while the Congress has named former MLA Tarvar Singh Lodhi. The seat was previously held by Prahlad Singh Patel, a former Union Minister and now a State Minister.
At his poll rally in Damoh last week, Mr. Modi had hit out at the Opposition alliance on issues ranging from Ram Temple to defence procurements. He had also targeted Pakistan, without naming the country, saying that the “supplier of terror now struggling for atta”.
Mr. Kharge, in Satna, had claimed that democracy in India will end if a government led by Mr. Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah came back. He had also accused the BJP-led Central government of “selling” the nation’s assets to big corporates.
Like in the first phase, with these topics continuing to resonate on ground, local issues such as inflation and unemployment took a back seat from being raised prominently in constituencies going to vote in phase two.
