Congress hopes for rich haul in BJP tribal bastion

BHOPAL: A day before AICC central screening committee meeting in New Delhi to discuss Lok Sabha candidates from the state, chief minister Kamal Nath on Thursday afternoon met ministers and MLAs from the Scheduled Tribes community. Sources said that chief minister asked for final suggestions for names of winnable candidates from the six tribal reserved Lok Sabha constituencies.

In 2014 elections, Congress was defeated in all six of these seats. However, in a bypoll in November 2015, the party won the Ratlam Lok Sabha seat, which it had never lost before 2014. Congress tribal leader and former Union minister of state Kantilal Bhuria won the seat by a margin of over 88,000 votes.

After more than a decade and half, this time the assembly seat statistics in the tribal reserved Lok Sabha constituencies look positive for the Congress party. The six ST reserved seats in the state are Shahdol, Mandla, Betul, Dhar, Ratlam and Khargone. Out of eight assembly seats in Dhar, the Congress presently holds six and BJP two. Congress also has a similar edge in Mandla with MLAs in and BJP two.

In Ratlam, Congress won five assembly seats in November, while the BJP got three. Shahdol and Betul have four legislators of both parties – four MLAs of ruling Congress and four of BJP. Khargone has six Congress MLAs, one independent and one BJP.

Speaking to TOI, state Congress media committee chairperson Shobha Oza said, “The chief minister is trying to get maximum number of seats for the Congress from the state. Out target is 20 plus constituencies. Keeping this target in mind, the chief minister has already held meetings with people’s representatives from every constituency. Lok Sabha seats are massive, most having eight assembly seats and so candidates’ selection is being done keeping the workers support in mind.”

State PCC office-bearers claimed that the candidate who gets unanimous support from ground workers and local leaders have the best chances of winning a Lok Sabha seat. After the 2014 BJP sweep, the toughest challenge for the Congress party is selection of “winnable” candidate. Some of these tribal reserved seats have repeatedly elected the BJP, despite Congress claim that tribals are its traditional votebank. Mandla has elected BJP’s Faggan Singh Kulaste since 1996 except for one term in 2009 when the winner from the constituency was Congress’ Basori Singh Masram. In 2014, Faggan Singh Kulaste defeated Congress’ Omkar Singh Markam (now cabinet minister in the Kamal Nath government) by a margin of 1,10,469 votes.

Betul ST reserved seat is one of the toughest for the Congress. It was last won by the party in 1991 by Aslam Sher Khan when it was a general seat. BJP, however, maybe in electoral dilemma after its two-time MP Jyoti Dhurve’s caste certificate claiming she is a tribal has been annulled. But this is a seat which has proved to be as big a BJP fortress as Bhopal or Vidisha. From 1996 to 2004, the seat was represented by BJP’s Vijay Kumar Khandelwal followed by Jyoti Dhurve in 2009 and 2014.

Shahdol has elected BJP since 1996 except for 2009 when Congress’ Rajesh Nandini Singh won the seat. Khargone elected Congress candidate and former Union minister Arun Yadav in 2007 in a bypoll before delimitation made this a reserved seat. Dhar is the only seat that did not show a one-party preference. It elected BJP in 1996, Congress in 1998, 1999. Then again BJP in 2004, Congress in 2009 and BJP in 2014. Ratlam always sent a Congress candidate to Lok Sabha, except for a year from May 2014. It elected Congress in a bypoll after death of BJP former MP Dileep Singh Bhuria.