Madhya Pradesh assembly elections 2018: Stage set for high-stakes battle in Bhopal Southwest

BHOPAL: Among all seven assembly seats in the district, Bhopal’s South-West looks headed to witness the most interesting contest this year. BJP sitting MLA

Uma Shankar Gupta

will try to make a hat trick. Congress candidate PC Sharma is hoping to win riding anti-incumbency and support of Sanjeev Saxena.


Saxena, an accused in Vyapam, could have made things difficult for Sharma by announcing to contest as an independent candidate after failing to fight on Congress ticket, later withdrew when senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh persuaded him. Singh had gone to Saxena’s residence on Thursday night to convince him not to contest as an independent.

After meeting Digvijaya Singh, Saxena announced he is in Congress. “I am in Congress and I will work for the party. I will not contest independently,” said Saxena. About Vyapam scam, Saxena said, “BJP has tried its best to malign my image by dragging me into Vyapam scam. Till date, no charges are against me,” said Saxena, an alumnus of MANIT, who enjoys support of student community.

In 2008 and 2013, Gupta was the winner and Saxena lost the election. In 2008, Saxena lost by 26,000 votes and in 2013, the margin was around 18,000. Sources said Saxena was not considered as he had lost two backto-back elections. This was the reason Congress has fielded Sharma this year from the seat. Sharma had won from here in 1998, much before the delimitation. In 2003, Sharma had lost to Gupta from the seat.

This is the seat where majority of voters are government employees. In 2013 by winning the seat, the then state home minister Uma Shankar Gupta had broken a myth that a state home minister is not re-elected in assembly elections. Gupta had retained Bhopal (South-west) seat with total of 71,167 votes.

In past, Shitla Sahai, Himmat Kothari and Kailash Chawla, who had contested assembly polls after serving as the state home minister had failed to get re-elected from their seats. Gupta, who was once mayor of Bhopal, had broken another myth that those who held position of mayor in Bhopal, do not succeed at the state level and fail to win assembly polls.

In past, Congress had fielded five former Bhopal mayors in assembly elections, all of whom had lost the battle. These included R K Bisariya, Sunil Sood, Vibha Patel and Deep Chand Yadav.