Shahdol Lok Sabha constituency has been a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 1996 and since then, has been won by Congress only once, in 2009.
Shahdol Lok Sabha constituency, one of the 29 seats of Madhya Pradesh, comprises eight assembly segments — Jaisingnagar, Jaitpur, Kotma, Anuppurm, Pushprajgarh, Bandhavgarh, Manpur and Barwara.
Read: All you need to know about Madhya Pradesh
In 2014, BJP’s Dalpat Singh defeated the Congress’s Rajesh Nandini Singh by more than two lakh votes. A by-poll was necessitated in 2016 after Dalpat Singh passed away. BJP retained the seat in the by-poll though with a reduced margin of 60,000 votes.
The general elections will be held across India in seven phases beginning April 11 and the counting of votes will take place on May 23.
Here’s all you need to know about the Shahdol Lok Sabha constituency:
State: Madhya Pradesh
Name of the Lok Sabha constituency: Shahdol
Date of polling: April 29
2019 candidates: Himadri Singh (BJP), Pramila Singh (Congress)
Sitting MP, Party: Dalpat Singh Paraste, BJP (Gyan Singh of BJP won in 2016 bypoll)
{{/usCountry}}Sitting MP, Party: Dalpat Singh Paraste, BJP (Gyan Singh of BJP won in 2016 bypoll)
{{/usCountry}}Winning margin in 2014: 241,301
Runner up name, party: Rajesh Nandini Singh, Congress
Number of voters in 2014: 969,116
Percentage of votes polled in 2014: 62
Number of polling booths in 2014: 1,850
Number of women voters: 440,579