Lok Sabha elections: BJP, Congress face internal bickering in Damoh seat

BHOPAL

: Both Congress and BJP are plagued with dissension in their ranks in Damoh parliamentary constituency. The bickering in Congress came to fore on Wednesday when Pratap Lodhi, now the official party candidate, took out a rally in the city with local party MLAs conspicuous by their absence. A day before, Ramkrishna Kusumria organised a show of strength with a similar rally in Tendukheda anticipating that he would get the ticket. Kusumaria who had joined the party recently organised his rally without the Congress consent.

The situation in BJP is no different as party sources claimed that "Prahalad Patel does not share cordial relations with the former finance minister Jayant Malaiya and Gopal Bhargawa, both big leaders of the region". Leader of the opposition Bhargawa is an MLA from Rehli, one of the assembly segments of Damoh.

Congress sources said, "Some of the party MLAs from the four assembly segments are actually supporters of Prahalad Patel. They may not support Pratap Lodhi, the party candidate." Though the poll math seems to be in favour of the Congress after winning four out of 8 assembly segments, the caste equation seems to favour the BJP. The party had won three assembly segments in the last assembly elections, while the

Patharia

seat was won by BSP's Rambai.

The maximum number of voters in the Lok Sabha seat belong to Scheduled Castes followed by Lodhis and Kurmis. Both the Congress and BJP candidates belong to Lodhi community.

Narendra Dube, a veteran journalist who has covered elections in

Bundelkhand

for the past 35 years said, "This time, there seems to be no wave and personality of the candidate will matter. Both the candidates are likely to face sabotage." The chain of events after the murder of the Congress leader Devendra Chourasia may also go in favour of Patel. "Kurmis may support him. Besides, the Kurmis are also not happy after Kusumaria has been denied ticket", sources said.

The BJP has been winning Damoh since 1989.