Even though by-elections are being held for two assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh. But this is a ‘question of respect’ for both BJP and Congress parties. While BJP would like to retain this fort by winning Budhni seat, Congress is trying its best to capture Vijaypur seat. Both the parties have also announced their candidates for Budhni and Vijaypur. Till now, former Chief Minister of the state Shivraj Singh Chauhan was the MLA from Budhni Assembly constituency of Sehore district. Chauhan resigned from the Assembly after he was elected MP from Vidisha parliamentary constituency in the Lok Sabha elections. Only after this, due to vacancy of this seat, by-election is being held here. At the same time, by-election has arisen in Vijaypur due to Congress MLA switching to BJP.
This time, BJP has fielded former Vidisha MP Ramakant Bhargava, considered a staunch supporter of Chauhan, from Budhni. He was Vidisha MP in the last Lok Sabha elections. In his place in this Lok Sabha election, the party made Chauhan its candidate from Vidisha. After this, he has now been given the assembly ticket from the traditional seat of Chauhan. Meanwhile, Congress made public the name of its candidate from this seat late last night. The party has fielded former minister Rajkumar Patel from here.
Patel had been MLA from this seat even before this. It is understood that after BJP fielded Bhargava, Patel’s claim from here got strengthened as this is an area dominated by Chauhan. Chauhan represents the Kirar community and Patel is also a member of the same community. In such a situation, it is believed that Congress has taken a bet on Patel from here keeping in mind the caste equations.
Ramniwas Rawat of BJP will face Mukesh Malhotra of Congress from Vijaypur seat of Sheopur district. Rawat has been a Congress MLA from this seat for a long time, but during the Lok Sabha elections, he left the Congress and joined the BJP. After this he was made cabinet minister in Dr. Mohan Yadav government. The by-election is being held here only because of his resignation from the assembly.
Congress is now engaged in aggressive election campaigning in this entire tribal dominated area, accusing Rawat of betraying the Congress. Due to this, Congress has fielded its tribal face Mukesh Malhotra from here, who is facing Rawat. Malhotra is considered to have a strong influence among the tribals and he was contesting on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket in the 2023 assembly elections and stood third. The work of filing nomination papers has started in both these areas. Voting will take place on November 13 and the results will be declared on November 23.
