With Cong in disarray, BJP in driving seat in MP Phase 2 strongholds, eyes walkover in Khajuraho

The seven constituencies of Madhya Pradesh going to polls in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 26 – Tikamgarh, Khajuraho, Damoh, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betul – are located in different regions of the sprawling state.

All these seats are known to be the bastions of the BJP, which has been ruling the state since 2003 barring a 14-months hiatus from December 2019 to March 2020, when the Kamal Nath-led Congress was in power. In the November 2023 Assembly elections, the BJP retained power by sweeping the state.

In the seven Lok Sabha seats up for voting on Friday, the Congress has not been able to make its presence felt for over 15 years. The party is now hoping that it would be able to leverage the “anti-incumbency” against the BJP MPs in these constituencies. The BJP has retained its candidates in these seats barring Damoh and Hoshangabad.

However, a lack of organisation on the ground and an exodus of party leaders from these regions have added to the woes of the Congress, which remains adrift in the state. In the Assembly elections too, the Congress had failed to make a mark in these belts.

In the Khajuraho seat in the Bundelkhand region, state BJP president V D Sharma is in the fray, who has virtually got a walkover after the Samajwadi Party (SP)’s candidate Meera Yadav’s nomination form was rejected by the returning officer for reportedly not having her signatures at some designated places. The Congress had left the seat for its INDIA bloc ally SP as part of their seat-sharing agreement.

Stung by the development, SP national president Akhilesh Yadav and MP Congress chief Jitu Patwari had cried foul, calling it a “murder of democracy”. Subsequently, the Congress announced that the All India Forward