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Constituency watch Khajuraho: BJP plays Modi card to foil Congress local factor

Khajuraho: This Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh has been a BJP bastion, as the saffron party has lost here only once in the last three decades. That was in 1999 when Union minister Uma Bharti, after winning here four times in a row from 1989 to 1998, shifted her constituency to Bhopal. That year, Satyavrat Chaturvedi of Congress won the Khajuraho seat, only for BJP to regain it in 2004.



Still, Congress candidate Kavita Singh is hopeful of an upset win.

“With Nyay, Congress is going to change the history of Khajuraho this time; we are getting support from all sections,” she told ET.

Another factor that may help Singh, a royal family member and wife of Rajnagar Congress MLA Vikram Singh Natiraja, is that several local BJP leaders are not happy with the party’s candidate V D Sharma as he is an outside from nearby Sagar. Two former BJP MLAs—Giriraj Kishor Poddar and Sukirti Jain—have rebelled and filed nomination independently, while another former MLA, Nisith Patel has joined Congress.

But BJP has its own trump card— Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“It would have been better if there was a local candidate but we are voting to make Modiji PM again,” said Harish Bundela, a local.

BJP president Amit Shah addressed the issue at a rally in Khajuraho on April 22. “Everyone was surprised when VD was given the ticket,” he had said. “But I can assure you, make VD win and he would prove to be a big leader.”

Congress, too, is campaigning hard. Party president Rahul Gandhi held a rally in Amanganj area of Khajuraho on April 30.

Nand Kishor Patel, a first-time voter in Jaswantpura village in Pawai, wants to vote for a change.

“Last time we voted for Modi,” he said. “There is a Congress government in the state and it would be better if the party comes at the Centre too.” Others concur.

BJP’s VD Sharma told ET, “People will tell on May 6 (poll day) whether they are with ‘deshbhakt’ Modi or ‘anti-national’ Congress.”

Samajwadi Party has fielded Veer Singh Patel, son of dreaded dacoit Dadua, from Khajuraho. However, voters seem to be largely inclined towards a straight fight between BJP and Congress with the former holding an edge.

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