After son Sanju, will father Ramlakhan Singh Kushwah also upset BJP’s prospects in Gwalior-Chambal region?

Kushwah’s son Sanju Singh Kushwah too was with BJP earlier and had won the Bhind district panchayat president’s post for the saffron party a few years back.
Ramlakhan Singh Kushwah (Photo | Facebook)
Ramlakhan Singh Kushwah (Photo | Facebook)

BHOPAL: It was first the son who jolted BJP’s fortunes in Bhind assembly seat of Gwalior-Chambal region and it could now be the turn of his father to upset the saffron party’s prospects from Morena Lok Sabha seat of the same region of Madhya Pradesh.

The Bahujan Samaj Party declared nine candidates for Lok Sabha polls in MP on Tuesday, one of them Ramlakhan Singh Kushwah, the four-time former BJP MP from Bhind seat of Gwalior-Chambal region.

Kushwah has been declared the BSP candidate from Morena-Sheopur seat, which is presently represented by BJP’s Anup Mishra (ex-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s nephew). But the BJP has denied ticket to Mishra and instead fielded sitting Gwalior MP and union minister Narendra Singh Tomar from the same seat.

With Kushwah being fielded now by the BSP from the seat, the contest might turn out to be an intriguing three-cornered fight, as the Congress is likely to field former MP minister Ramniwas Rawat (who surprisingly lost the assembly polls from Vijaypur-Sheopur seat) from the Morena Lok Sabha constituency.

Importantly, Kushwah’s son Sanju Singh Kushwah too was with BJP earlier and had won the Bhind district panchayat president’s post for the saffron party a few years back. But he later switched over to BSP and won the Bhind seat for the Mayawati-led by party in 2018 assembly polls, defeating powerful BJP leader Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi by over 36,000 votes.

Sanju Singh Kushwah is among the four independents, two BSP and one SP MLAs presently supporting the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in the state.

It now remains to be seen whether just like son Sanju, father Ramlakhan Singh Kushwah also upsets his former party BJP’s calculations in Morena-Sheopur seat or not.

Speculations, meanwhile, are rife that BJP might change the candidate from Morena-Sheopur seat, fielding either sitting MP Anup Mishra or state party general secretary VD Sharma (who hails from Morena only). Tomar might be shifted to Bhopal to take on the ex-CM and Congress candidate Digvijaya Singh.

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