Lok Sabha elections 2019: In MP, Congress looks to build on state poll wins, BJP aims to bounce back

In the last phase, the state’s drought-hit Bundelkhand went to polls. This time around, the Gwalior-Chambal region, besides parts of Bundelkhand and central Madhya Pradesh, will go to polls on Sunday.

The eight constituencies include four in the Gwalior-Chambal region — Gwalior, Guna, Morena and Bhind (a seat reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Caste categories)— and three are in central MP, including Bhopal, Vidisha and Rajgarh. The remaining seat is Sagar, which falls in Bundelkhand region.

In the 2014 elections, the BJP won all these seats, except Guna that was won by Congress general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia. The saffron party won 27 of the 29 seats in the state. However, the December assembly elections put the Congress back in power after 15 years.

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Last April’s violence in the Gwalior-Chambal region during a bandh observed by SC/ST organisations— called after the Supreme Court rolled back certain provisions of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act —claimed nine lives. This time too, it is an election issue.

Among the main candidates in the fray are sitting MP and Congress candidate from Guna Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is seeking his fifth consecutive term. The BJP’s KP Yadav will face him.

Union minister for rural development Narendra Singh Tomar is contesting on a BJP ticket from Morena. He had represented the seat from 2009 to 2014 but shifted to Gwalior in 2014 and won by less than 30,000 votes. Congress has fielded ex-MLA Ramnivas Rawat while BSP has fielded Kartar Singh Bhadana from Morena.

Bhind, which is reserved for scheduled castes, offers an interesting fight. The Congress has pinned its hopes on Devashish Jarariya, who defected to the party from the BSP. He has been one of leaders at the forefront of the agitation against the dilution of the SC/ST Act . The BJP aims to receive support from non-SC votes and draw benefit from the division of SC votes among the Congress and the BSP.

Bhopal will see a fierce fight between Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh and BJP’s candidate Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in 2008 Malegaon serial bomb blasts. Earlier in the month, Thakur was barred for 72 hours by the Election Commission over her polarising campaign speeches, including her remarks on being involved in the Babri Masjid demolition, and her so-called curse on IPS officer Hemant Karkare, who investigated the Malegaon blast, and died in the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.

While the BJP hopes to gain from Hindutva issue, Digvijaya Singh is pushing his development agenda for the state capital to convince the voters.

In Rajgarh, where is Singh has contested before, the Congress has fielded Mona Sustani against the BJP’s sitting MP and candidate Rodmal Nagar. BSP has not fielded any candidate here. Jayant Singh Tomar, head of the department of journalism at Institute of Technology and Management University, Gwalior said, “The political equations are quite different this time in comparison to those during state assembly elections. The anger against BJP has subsided and factors like caste equations and national issues are at play.”

 

Bihar
Gopalganj	Janak Ram, BJP
Siwan	Om Prakash Yadav, BJP
Maharajganj	Janardan Singh Sigriwal, BJP
Paschim Champaran	Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal, BJP
Purvi Champaran	Radha Mohan Singh, BJP
Sheohar	Rama Devi, BJP
Vaishali	Rama Kishore Singh, LJP
Valmiki Nagar	Satish Chandra Dubey, BJP
Madhya Pradesh
Bhind	Dr. Bhagirath Prasad, BJP
Bhopal	Alok Sanjar, BJP
Guna	Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress
Gwalior	Narendra Singh Tomar, BJP
Morena	Anoop Mishra, BJP
Sagar	Laxmi Narayan Yadav, BJP
Vidisha	Sushma Swaraj, BJP
Rajgarh	Rodmal Nagar, BJP
Delhi
South Delhi	Ramesh Bidhuri, BJP
West Delhi	Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, BJP
East Delhi	Maheish Girri, BJP
Chandni Chowk	Harsh Vardhan, BJP
North West Delhi	Udit Raj, BJP
North East Delhi	Manoj Tiwari, BJP
New Delhi	Meenakshi Lekhi, BJP
Haryana
Ambala (SC)	Rattan Lal Kataria, BJP
Kurukshetra	Raj Kumar Saini, BJP
Sirsa (SC)	Charanjeet Singh Rori, INLD
Hisar	Dushyant Chautala, JJP
Karnal	Ashwini Kumar Chopra, BJP
Sonipat	Ramesh Chander Kaushik, BJP
Rohtak	Deepender Hooda, Congress
Bhiwani–Mahendragarh	Dharambir, BJP
Gurgaon	Rao Inderjit Singh, BJP
Faridabad	Krishan Pal Gurjar, BJP

Uttar Pradesh
Allahabad	Shyama Charan Gupta, BJP
Ambedkar Nagar	Hariom Pandey, BJP
Azamgarh	Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP
Basti	Harish Dwivedi, BJP
Badohi	Virendra Singh, BJP
Domariyaganj	Jagdambika Pal, BJP
Jaunpur	KP Singh, BJP
Lalganj	Neelam Sonkar, BJP
Machhlishahr	Ram Charitra Nishad, BJP
Phulpur	Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel, SP
Pratapgarh	Kuwar Harivansh Singh, Apna Dal
Sant Kabir Nagar	Sharad Tripathi, BJP
Shrawasti	Daddan Mishra, BJP
Sultanpur	Varun Gandhi, BJP
Jharkhand
Dhanbad	Pashupati Nath Singh, BJP
Giridih	Ravindra Kumar Pandey, BJP
Jamshedpur	Vidyut Baran Mahto, BJP
Singhbhum	Laxman Gilua, BJP
West Bengal
Bankura	Moon Moon Sen, Trinamool Congress
Bishnupur	Saumitra Khan, Trinamool Congress
Jhargram	Uma Saren, Trinamool Congress
Ghatal	Deepak Adhikari, Trinamool
Kanthi	Sisir Adhikari, Trinamool Congress
Medinipur	Sandhya Roy, Trinamool Congress
Purulia	Mriganko Mahato, Trinamool
Tamluk	Dibyendu Adhikari, Trinamool Congress