What's in a name? A lot... of confusion for voters in 12 seats

BHOPAL: BJP and Congress candidates with same surnames are in fray in at least 12 seats in Madhya Pradesh assembly polls this time voting for which would take place on Friday. The BJP and Congress candidates with same surnames are also on the two high profile seats from where the BJP has fielded two of its Union ministers in Dimni and Narsinghpur assembly constituencies. It is Narendra Singh Tomar against Ravindra Singh Tomar in Dimni and Prahlad Singh Patel against Lakhan Singh Patel in Narsinghpur. The symbol of Congress's 'hand' and BJP's 'lotus' has no similarity, but the voters should also keep in mind the candidates of the rival parties with same surnames.Generally the candidates with names or surnames similar to the BJP and Congress candidate names or surnames contest from other parties or as independents to confuse voters, but it was rare in MP elections this time that candidates of the main political parties - BJP and Congress - with same surnames are contesting in the same constituency. There are also seats where one main party fielded male and other main party fielded female candidate, but their surnames are same.The political experts point out that caste factor dominates in ticket distribution. If the voters of a particular caste or community are more in a constituency or have dominance, the political parties prefer to give tickets from it to increase its possibility to win the seat. But the factor of what if the same surname candidates were fielded from the main parties in same constituency was probably not considered while deciding upon the candidates.Similarly, assembly elections in MP are not only being fought between the candidates of the main political parties, but also between their namesakes. Namesakes are not new in the MP elections. Candidates with names 'akin' to their opponents were present in almost all elections to cause confusion and some voters, perhaps unable to distinguish between namesakes, end up giving their vote to other candidates.In this election some of the most interesting seats which are witnessing a direct contest between names include Chachora where three major candidates are in the fray - Congress's Laxman Singh, AAP (former BJP MLA) Mamta Meena and Priyanka Penchi of BJP. But there is one namesake of each of these main candidates who is contesting as an independent, Laxman Singh, Priyanka and Mamta Meena and all of them are independents. Similar issues for main political parties' candidates were faced in Damoh, Jabera, Pawai, Nagod and Rehli constituencies.