Bhopal: Two former chief ministers - Digvijaya Singh and Uma Bharti - will be in fray from Madhya Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Recently, former chief minister Uma Bharti had written to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah informing him that she would not like to contest in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
She also tweeted that she wants to spend the next one-and-a half years on the banks of river Ganga.
These developments came ahead of the BJP central election committee meeting in New Delhi.
Uma's decision not to contest from the Jhansi Lok Sabha seat is believed to be due to anti-incumbency factor.
Locals had been reminding her of her 2014 promise of carving out a separate state of Bundelkhand.
She had vowed then to fulfill it within three years of coming to power.
Another poll promise was to provide employment to the youths of Jhansi and Bundelkhand regions, where Dalits, Yadavs and OBCs supported the BJP in the 2014 general elections and in the 2017 Assembly elections in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
Dalits, Yadavs and Muslims in Uttar Pradesh traditionally support the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.
Uma's decision to not contest may be due to resentment against her on these two issues and the incumbency factor against the NDA government at the Centre. With the alliance of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal in place in Uttar Pradesh, she is planning to contest from Madhya Pradesh, her home State. Uma is planning to contest from either Khajuraho or Damoh in Bundelkhand region.
Uma has represented Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat four terms since 1989. Currently, her nephew Siddarth Lodhi is an MLA from Kaharagpur Assembly seat, a part of the Khajuraho parliamentary constituency. In last year's assembly elections, the BJP had won five of the eight assembly segments in Khajuraho parliamentary seat. Congress won two seats and a Samajwadi Party candidate was elected in one seat.
The Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat is vacant after BJP MP Nagendra Singh won the 2018 assembly elections.
When she became the chief minister in 2003, Uma had made Nagendra the minister of public relations.
The other safe Lok Sabha seat from where Uma is eyeing to contest is Damoh. Her close associate Prahlad Singh Patel is the sitting MP there. The BJP had won three assembly seats within this constituency in the last assembly elections. Going by the voting trend in assembly polls, the BJP has a slender lead of 3,028 votes in the parliamentary constituency.
In 2014, the BJP had won the seat by a margin of over 2.13 lakh votes. There was a 23.34% vote swing in favour of BJP candidate mainly due to the Modi wave then.
Uma's calculation is that she won’t require much time to connect with the Lodhi voters in the two seats.
Meanwhile, Digvijaya Singh has accepted the faith imposed on him by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, who suggested that the former chief minister should contest from a tough seat. (Singh, who was a two-time chief minister, was succeeded by Uma in late 2003.)
"To accept challenges is my habit. I won from Raghogarh despite the Janata Party wave in 1977. I am ready to contest the Lok Sabha elections from wherever my leader Rahul Gandhi ji says,'' Digvijaya tweeted.
"I'm grateful to Kamal Nath for thinking that I'm competent enough to fight Lok Sabha elections," Digvijaya said in another tweet.
Nath had urged the former CM to contest from a seat which the Congress has not won for three decades or more, like Bhopal, Indore, and Vidisha, which are BJP strongholds.
The Congress has not won Bhopal Lok Sabha seat for the last 30 years, Indore for the last eight times in a row and Vidisha seat for the last 36 years. It is not yet clear from which Digvijaya will contest.
Digvijaya to contest from Bhopal
Congress vetern Digvijaya Singh will now contest from Bhopal, Congress leader and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath confirmed on Saturday.
Earlier, Singh had expressed his willingness to contest from wherever his party wants him to. Rumours were abound since then that Singh will be fielded in Bhopal or Indore, strongholds for Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
Singh was invited by chief minister Kamal Nath into the poll fray with the intention to take back these key constituencies that Congress had lost. The Congress had last won Bhopal constituency in 1984, after assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and Indore in 1984 when Prakash Chandra Sethi defeated his opponents.
In 2014 elections, BJP had won 27 seats in the state while Congress only managed two. Bhopal constituency is represented by BJP's Alok Sanjar, who had won the seat in 2014 by a marjin of 3.70 lakh votes. BJP stalwarts like Sushil Chandra Verma, Uma Bharati and Kailash Joshi had represented this seat in the past.
Singh had served as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh between 1993-2003, and is currently a member of the Rajya Sabha.