Lok Sabha elections 2019: Tribal, farmer issues form main poll plank in Madhya Pradesh

Malwa-Nimad region in Madhya Pradesh will go to polls on May 19 in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections. BJP had won all eight in 2014.

Malwa-Nimad region in Madhya Pradesh will go to polls on May 19 in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections. BJP had won all eight in 2014.

Farmer plough the field. (Mujeeb Faruqui/HT file photo for representation)

The constituencies include five seats reserved for candidates in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes categories — Ujjain, Ratlam, Dewas, Dhar and Khargone — besides Indore, Khandwa and Mandsaur. In all, Madhya Pradesh, which constitutes 29 Lok Sabha seats, has 10 reserved seats.

Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress went the extra mile to woo voters in the reserved seats — Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi both, addressed election meetings at Ratlam.

Congress, which recently defeated BJP in the state elections, won 35 seats from this region as against BJP’s 28. In the previous assembly polls, the BJP had won 56 out of this region’s 66 seats, indicating the extent of Congress’s gain.

Indore will see a high profile fight between BJP’s Shankar Lalwani and Congress’s Pankaj Sanghvi. The BJP leadership dropped sitting MP and Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan. The Bahujan Samaj Party, meanwhile, has fielded Deepchand Ahirwal.

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In Ratlam, sitting MP and Congress candidate Kantilal Bhuria who was defeated in 2014 polls but won a by-election, is up against the BJP’s GS Damor. The latter is the only sitting legislator who has been fielded by the BJP in the election. The BSP has fielded Madhu Patel.

Dewas will witness an interesting fight between folk singer Prahlad Tipaniya, who is the Congress candidate, and Mahendra Solanki of the BJP. The BSP has fielded Badrilal Akela.

Mandsaur, which came into the limelight due to a farmer agitation in 2017, the BJP has relied on candidature of Sudhir Gupta again against ex-MP from Congress Meenakshi Natrajan and BSP’s Prabhulal Meghwal.

Gauam Kothari, head of Pithampur Audyogic Sangthan, Dhar said, “In the past 30 years none of our representatives did anything significant. This is why Malwa has poor health scenario and poor infrastructure.”