Bhopal: Electoral politics in this heartland state of the country is mostly driven by local and national issues. Caste equations also come into play in Madhya Pradesh's electoral turf, but violence is kept at bay.
In the run-up to Lok Sabha elections this time, many public representatives are being linked with crimes including murder and rape.
Since a bipolar contest is the tradition of Madhya Pradesh, both the prominent political formations – the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- are in a fix due to this.
On Holi day, Damoh district’s Selvada Sarpanch Ujayar Singh was shot dead.
According to the Tendukha police station in-charge Prakash Chandra Kaul, the Sarpanch was shot dead when he attempted to sort out a dispute between two persons.
A police team raided the premises of Bahujan Samaj Party's Pathariya MLA Rambai Govind Singh and district panchayat president Shivcharan Patel.
Police are trying to zero in on Govind Singh, husband of legislator, and Chandu Singh, her brother-in-law.
Tensions were running high in Damoh district's Hata Assembly segment ever since Devendra Chourasia, a BSP leader, was beaten to death three days after he joined the Congress in presence of Chief Minister Kamal Nath.
On March 15, Chourasiya and his son were reportedly attacked by a mob. He was rushed to a hospital, where he succumbed. His son is undergoing treatment at the hospital.
There was an impromptu bandh in Hata in protest against the failure of administration on the law and order front and to demand the arrest of Chourasiya's killers, who are yet to be nabbed, though the police have formed 25 teams for the purpose.
A murder case has been registered against Govind Singh, Chandu Singh and five of their accomplices.
A dispute related to district panchayat polls was apparently the trigger for the murder. Ramabai was the vice-president of the district panchayat before being elected MLA in last year's assembly polls.
“False cases have been fabricated against my husband and my brother-in-law to malign by political image,” she told reporters.
In another embarrassment, Mandla district Police arrested Satendra, son of BJP Rajya Sabha lawmaker Sampatiya Uike, for possessing heroin. Satendra and two of his aides were arrested during a routine check after the model code of conduct was in place. The Police team seized 41 packets of heroin.
The state unit of the Congress has alleged that the BJP MP’s son has links with a global drug racket. The Congress is also in mat in other cases.
Congress corporator and leader of Opposition in Bhopal Municipal Corporation Mohammed Sageer was booked on charges of raping a woman last week. Sageer is absconding and a local court has rejected his anticipatory bail plea.
Politics of Pathariya
Pathariya Assembly seat is one of the eight assembly segments in Damoh Lok Sabha seat, held by BJP MP Prahlad Singh Patel. In the assembly elections, Congress wrested four of the eight assembly segments in Damoh and the BJP won three.
If the assembly poll trends are any indication, the BJP leads by a narrow margin of 3,028 votes.
But this is a steep dip from 2014, when the BJP won by a margin of over 2.13 lakh votes.
There was a 23.34 per cent swing in favour of Prahlad Patel during the 2014 Modi wave.
Interestingly, union minister Uma Bharti is keen to contest from Damoh abd Prahlad Singh Patel, the sitting MP, is her close associate.
The seat has a concentration of OBC voters, especially belonging to the Lodhi community to which Uma belongs.
Former Finance Minister Jayant Mallaiya, who lost in the assembly elections, is also seeking a ticket for his son Siddharth.
The Congress is scouting for a candidate with a mix of youth and political experience to put up a tough fight.
Saffron bastion
The Bhopal Lok Sabha seat has been a saffron bastion for 30 years.
In the November 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress won three of the eight assembly segments in the seat.
The BJP had won five assembly seats, one less as compared to 2013 Assembly elections.
Counting votes in all assembly segments, the BJP has an edge of 63,457 votes. But the worrying factor is that it had won the seat by a margin of over 3.70 lakh votes in 2014.
The BJP and the Congress are yet to announce candidates.
BJP veteran and former chief minister Babulal Gaur is seeking a ticket from Bhopal constituency.
Former chief Minister Digvijaya Singh is likely to be in fray to wrest the seat for the Congress after three decades.
Lawmakers and crime
In the 2018 Assembly elections, more than 750 of the 2,716 candidates had criminal cases registered against them.
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, an NGO that works for electoral and political reforms, 94 of them got elected – 56 of them are Congress MLAs followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party with 34.
Forty seven of these legislators face serious charges.
In 2013, there were 73 MLAs with criminal cases registered against them – that is nearly 32 per cent of the legislators. Out of the 165 elected BJP MLAs, 48 had criminal cases against them while 22 of 58 Congress legislators were in the same boat.
Two out of the three Independent MLAs also had criminal cases against them.
The Lok Sabha polls will be held in Madhya Pradesh in four phases beginning on April 29 to elect 29 lawmakers.
