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Scindia's fate will be decided in MP's first round

As many as 14 of the total 40 seats in Madhya Pradesh will witness a multi-cornered contest, mainly among the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on September 11.

The fate of several political heavyweights, including Union Labour Minister Satyanarayan Jatia, Congress general secretary Madhavrao Scindia will be decided in the first phase.

The picture that emerges after the completion of withdrawal for the first phase reveals that in at least nine seats the Congress, the BJP and the BSP would be locked in a triangular contest. The ruling Congress and the BJP are pitted against each other in a neck-and-neck competition in at least five constituencies.

The presence of Samajwadi Party nominees in six seats and Ajaya Bharat Party candidates in ten can have a considerable effect in swinging the poll result.

Prominent among those in the fray are Jatia: Ujjain (SC), Madhavrao Scindia: Guna, BJP general secretary Sumitra Mahajan: Indore, film actor Nitish Bharadwaj (BJP) and Chief Minister Digvijay Singh's brother Laxman Singh (Congress), BJP leader and National Scheduled Caste and Tribe Commission chairman Dilip Singh Bhuria: Jhabua.

After withdrawal of nominations yesterday, a total of 110 candidates are left in the fray for the election to the 14 seats. While a maximum of 15 aspirants are contesting from the Gwalior seat, 13 are testing their fortunes from Indore, 12 from Bhind, 10 from Morena (SC), eight each from Rajgarh, Khandwa and Ujjain (SC) , seven from Mandsaur, six each from Shajapur and Khargone, five each from Betul and Guna, four from Dhar (ST) and three from Jhabua (ST).

Other important Congress contestants are former state ministers Satyadev Katare (Bhind) and Tanwant Singh Keer (Khandwa). Both these leaders had been denied ticket in the last year's assembly elections.

Two other former ministers, including Mahesh Joshi (Indore) and Kantilal Bhuria (Jhabua), are also in the fray.

State Congress president Radhakishan Malviya (Shajapur) and Gufrane Azam (Betul) are the two Rajya Sabha members of the Congress to test their electoral fortunes. From the BJP, former Bajrang Dal president Jaibhan Singh Paviya (Gwalior) and party legislator Deshraj Singh (Guna) are contesting the elections.

BSP working committee member and legislator Phool Singh Bariya is an aspirant from the Gwalior seat. From the BJP camp, Jatia, Mahajan and former state party president Laxminarayan Pande have been returned from the Ujjain, Indore and Mandsaur seats during the last four elections.

BSP candidates endeavouring for a hat-trick are Ashok Argal (Morena), Dr Ramlakhan Singh (Bhind), Vijay Khandelwal (Betul), Thavar Chand Gehlot (Shajapur) and Nandkumar Singh (Khandwa).

Congress nominee and party general secretary Madhavrao Scindia has created a poll record by winning the last eight elections. However this time he is trying his luck from the Guna seat rather than the traditional Gwalior seat. Rajgarh, in the last two elections, has returned the Congress nominee Laxman Singh. This time he is striving to score a hat-trick.

For the 14 seats in the first phase, there are at least nine such Congress candidates in the fray who are contesting their maiden election. The BJP, has on the other hand, re-nominated eight of its nominees.

UNI

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