In these 5 Lok Sabha seats, BJP and Congress will engage in a direct contest

BHOPAL: Battle lines are drawn for the

Lok Sabha elections

in Madhya Pradesh where both the BJP and Congress are pitted in a direct tie in a bipolar contest in most of the seats.

Both parties have so far declared candidates for 24 seats of which 15 seats were cleared by the BJP and nine by the Congress party.

Among these there are five seats where the field is totally clear as both the parties have named their candidates. Of these, two seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes where newcomers have been fielded by both the parties. Tribal areas are more sensitive to local issues, apart from the saffron run campaign on equality, conversions and forest rights.

The most talked-about tribal seat is Shahdol, which BJP has managed to win during the last two polls. This time the saffron party has dumped its sitting MP, Gyan Singh, and preferred the young tribal royal face Himadri Singh, who left Congress and joined BJP only a few days ago. Himadri is pitted against Pramila Singh Takam, a BJP rebel leader, who had joined Congress ahead of last 2018 assembly elections.

Himadri, who is married to BJP's youth wing leader Narendra Singh Marawi who bagged the BJP ticket due to her political roots in the tribal belt. Her father late Dalbir Singh was a Union minister in Congress government, while mother Rajesh Nandini Singh had won the Shahdol seat in 2009 as Congress candidate, breaking a 13-year jinx of saffron victory in the tribal belt.

After Rajesh Nandini, BJP's Gyan Singh won the next two polls.

Congress candidate Pramila Singh Tekam, who won the 2013 assembly election on a BJP ticket from Jaisinghnagar, turned rebel in 2018 after being denied ticket and joined Congress. Pramila is a relative of BJP's sitting MP from Rewa, Janardan Singh. Being a senior and experienced candidate, she can pose a challenge to BJP in Shahdol.

In Betul Lok Sabha seat, the two parties have fielded fresh faces. Though, BJP has an active RSS member in the form of Durgadas Uikey (58) against Congress' young face Ramu Takam (31). Uikey is a teacher by profession, an active member of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Sangh Parivar, is well versed in Hindi and Marathi languages besides, Gondi and Korku tribal dialects.

The Congress candidate, Ramu, began his political career with panchayat elections in 2006 and was active with NSUI. Presently he is the state president of Congress Adivasi Vikas Parishad (youth wing) since 2013.

In Tikamgarh (SC), BJP candidate and sitting MP, Virendra Kumar faces Congress' Kiran Ahirwar, a relative new entrant to politics, but from a family with strong roots in the region.

Kiran is daughter of retired IAS officer, RN Bairwa who was said to be close to Congress leader Digvijaya Singh while he was the Madhya Pradesh chief minister.

In Mandsaur, the most sensitive region of Malwa where farmers' unrest had triggered a major political row between the Congress and BJP in 2017, the BJP may face a tough fight.

The Congress workers is learnt to have garnered support of BJP dissidents against the sitting MP Sudhir Gupta who has been re-nominated from the seat by the BJP. Congress candidate Meenakshi Natrajan who has been given the ticket for the third time told reporters on Sunday, "I am fighting an ideological battle against the saffron forces and hope to win this time."


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