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Lok Sabha elections 2019: Congress faces test of popularity in 11 Lok Sabha strongholds
It is also only one of the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies that the Congress has won at least 12 times (in 16 attempts). That translates into a 75% strike rate.
Debutant Nakul Nath is seeking votes in the name his father, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath in Chhindwara.
Every message of his on social media mentions his kinship with the Congress veteran who has represented the constituency in the last nine Lok Sabhas.
Interestingly, Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh has always been represented by a Congress candidate since the country’s first parliamentary election in 1951-52.
It is also only one of the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies that the Congress has won at least 12 times (in 16 attempts). That translates into a 75% strike rate.
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These seats are: Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, Koraput in Odisha, Guntur and Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, Dibrugarh in Assam, Ernakulum in Kerala, Sangli and Nandurbar in Maharashtra, Rae Bareli in UP and Punjab’s Jalandhar. The party has also won Malda 12 out of 14 times (Malda was not a separate constituency in the first two polls) but the traditional stronghold of the Congress has since been bifurcated into North Malda and South Malda seats.
These seats spread across nine states and also serve as a barometer of the Congress’ popularity among the voters. In the 2014 elections, when the Congress slipped to its lowest ever tally of 44 seats, the party faced defeat in as many as six of this prestigious bloc of constituencies. Three of them—Nandurbar, Dibrugarh and Sangli-- were won by the BJP, the other three—Koraput, Guntur, Nellore—went to regional outfits.
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s seat Rae Bareli has been loyal to the Congress except in 1996 and 1998 when the BJP won the seat. The two elections also marked the rise of the BJP in the UP as well as at the national stage. In 1996, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP won 161 seats and formed the union government but for just 13 days. In the next election, the BJP increased its tally to 182, and formed a government for 13 months. After Sonia Gandhi, then Congress president, joined the electoral fray, Rae Bareli returned to the Congress fold. The neighbouring Amethi, the seat of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, came into existence in 1967. Out of the 13 elections held in the seat, the Congress has won 11 times.
Eight out of the twelve (including the twin seats of Malda) will be up for grabs in the remaining phases of the ongoing national election. For the Congress, unseating the BJP is the main goal, but winning these seats can add to the glory of the party.
“Holding traditional seats are important for a party. It shows how a party has continuously met the expectations of the voters over a long period of time. These seats will be especially important for the Congress as it had slumped to their worst performance in 2014,” said former parliamentary affairs secretary Afzal Amanullah.
