Lok Sabha elections: Congress looks for way back into Narmada bastions

NEW DELHI: Whose ‘kaushal’ (strategy) will work in Mahakoshal this time: the proactive Congress government of the last three months or BJP which has redoubled efforts to reclaim lost ground using PM Modi’s image?
Mahakoshal, the upper reaches of the Narmada, was once a Congress stronghold but over the last decade, a saffron surge has taken over nearly the entire region and BJP won five of the six parliamentary seats in 2014.But buoyant after last year’s assembly election win, Congress believes it can reverse the scoreline.
In the last general elections, BJP won Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Mandla and Balaghat while Chhindwara — Kamal Nath’s home turf — held out against the Modi wave. This time, the Madhya Pradesh CM has handed the baton to his son Nakul. Mahakoshal has seen a reversal of fortunes over the past two elections. In the 2013 assembly elections, BJP won 29 of 47 seats in the region. Five years later, Congress has 26 assembly seats and the support of an independent, while BJP is reduced to 20. In 2014, BJP took advantage of the groundswell for Modi to woo tribal voters but this time, the fight is harder for both sides.

The Congress performance in Chhindwara, Shahdol, Jabalpur and Mandla in the 2018 assembly polls was impressive as it wrested 11 more seats from BJP but was shaken by the loss of three seats in Sidhi, despite anti-incumbency against the BJP government. This time, Sidhi is a face-off between sitting BJP MP Riti Pathak and Congress veteran Ajay Singh. It has been a bitter battle, with BJP complaining against Singh for using an objectionable word against Pathak. Singh is fighting for pride, and more, having lost the Assembly polls on his home turf of Churhat and the LS seat of Satna in 2014. He has announced this could be his last election.
In Shahdol, it’s a battle between turncoats — Himadri Singh, who quit Congress a month ago, has been fielded by BJP against Pramila Singh, a former BJP MLA who joined Congress just before the last assembly polls. Himadri’s association with Congress goes far back, though — her mother Rajeshnandini Singh became Congress MP of Shahdol after defeating Himadri’s husband, BJP leader Narendra Maravi, in 2009.
In Jabalpur, where BJP gained two assembly segments in 2018, state unit president Rakesh Singh is pitted against Congress Rajya Sabha member and Supreme Court lawyer Vivek Tankha.