- Attempt to make contest triangular on Morena, Bhind and Lahaar seats
Harish Dubey, Gwalior
BSP candidates are making every effort to give a tough challenge to Congress and BJP on the three assembly seats of Gwalior Chambal. The candidates fielded by BSP on Morena, Lahaar and Bhind seats were in BJP till a few weeks ago and were waiting for the ticket, but when their hopes of getting the ticket were not fulfilled, they took the elephant ride. The support base of Rakesh Rustam Singh of Morena, Sanjeev Singh Kushwaha of Bhind and Rasal Singh of Lahaar, who have been fielded by BSP in their respective areas, cannot be denied. This is the reason why BSP has pinned huge hopes on these three seats. On the other hand, former MLA Balveer Singh Dandotia, who is once again contesting on Dimani seat on BSP ticket, is in the fray this time against Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
Rustam Singh, father of Rakesh Singh, who was made the BSP candidate from Morena, has been a cabinet minister of important departments in the BJP governments of the state for a long time. Morena has been his traditional seat for the last two decades, from where he has been winning and losing elections. Rustam Singh, who left the job of an IPS officer and joined active politics with the inspiration of Advani, had hopes of getting a ticket this time too, which was not fulfilled. Angered, he along with his son Rakesh Singh, who was already active in the political field, and hundreds of his supporters, made serious allegations against the BJP and said goodbye to the party. BSP is contesting Rakesh Singh from his father’s seat and BSP itself has made Rustam Singh the star campaigner for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. His competition is against Dinesh Gurjar of Congress and Raghuraj Singh Kansana of BJP. In this way, conditions have been created for a triangular contest in Morena. Since Dinesh Gurjar is considered close to Kamal Nath, Nath’s reputation is directly at stake here.
Due to the strong presence of BSP in Bhind seat also, the situation seems to be developing for a triangular contest. Here, BJP did not give ticket to the sitting MLA Sanjeev Singh Kushwaha, on the contrary, it gave ticket to Narendra Singh Kushwaha, who contested the last election against him, although Sanjeev Kushwaha himself had won on BSP ticket in the last election and joined BJP a year ago. Here Congress has given ticket to Rakesh Chaudhary, a minister in the Digvijay government and the deputy leader of opposition a decade ago. Coincidentally, there was a contest between these three in the 2018 elections too, only the parties of these three candidates were different.
Veteran Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Dr. Govind Singh has been contesting elections from Lahaar seat for the last seven times, this time he has to compete on two fronts. BJP has made youth leader Ambrish Sharma Guddu, who had earlier contested the elections, as its candidate, while BSP has made the elections interesting and exciting by declaring Rasal Singh, who rebelled against BJP after not getting the ticket, as its candidate. In Lahaar seat, BSP has been challenging Congress and BJP in every election, this time also the same is happening. Rasal Singh has been MLA from Raun seat many times, after all the areas of this seat were included in the wave of delimitation, Rasal Singh’s political influence got affected but he has preserved his vote bank. This is the reason why BSP has pinned hopes on him. However, BJP’s Ambrish Sharma Guddu has used all his strength to snatch this seat from Congress veteran Dr. Govind Singh. On the other hand, Govind Singh says that BSP is not in a position to influence the results like every time. On the other hand, the politics of Balveer Singh Dandautia, who is contesting elections from Dimani on a BSP ticket, started in Congress. After being an MLA from BSP, he returned to Congress, but did not get the ticket there, so this time again BSP has given him the ticket from Dimani and now in front of him are Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar from BJP and Ravindra Singh Tomar Bhidosa of Congress.
Mayawati will campaign in Gwalior Chambal this week
According to party sources, Mayawati will blow the election trumpet in Madhya Pradesh by holding a public meeting in Niwari area, closest to Jhansi, on November 6. She will hold a total of 9 meetings. Bahujan Samaj Party has a good influence in the areas adjacent to UP. Since BSP has fielded candidates on Bundelkhand, Bhind, Morena, Lahaar and Dimani seats of Gwalior-Chambal division of Madhya Pradesh adjoining Uttar Pradesh, there is a possibility that Mayawati will campaign for these candidates.
Rustam Singh also in the list of star campaigners
Meanwhile, after BJP and Congress, now BSP has also released the list of star campaigners for the assembly elections. In this, names of 40 veteran leaders including BSP chief Mayawati, Rajya Sabha MP Ram Ji Gautam, National Coordinator Akash Anand, State President Ramakant Pippal have been included. The special thing is that in this list, former Morena minister and senior leader Rustam Singh, who had resigned from BJP, has also been made a star campaigner. Now Rustam Singh will campaign for his son in Morena.
BSP had won a dozen seats under the chairmanship of Baraiya
Gwalior – This party has had a wide influence in Chambal since its inception. Here Engr. Phoolsingh Baraiya laid the foundation of the party. This was the period when up to half a dozen BSP MLAs were elected from this region. When Baraiya was the state president of the party, BSP had won a dozen seats in Madhya Pradesh. After the rift with Mayawati, Baraiya, after touring various parties, is now in Congress and is contesting the assembly elections from here for the second consecutive time on Congress ticket. By the way, he has been MLA from here in 1993 on a BSP ticket.
