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Of the 16 Parliamentary constituencies, which will go to polls tomorrow in the second phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh, one of the most interesting contests would be observed in Rajgarh.
The electoral battle here has become interesting mainly due to the fact that the BJP nominee here is Laxman Singh, who is younger brother of Congress General Secretary and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh.
Singh was elected for the first time from Rajgarh on a Congress ticket way back in 1994 but he left the party and joined BJP just before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
His Congress opponent this time is Narayan Singh and for the last couple of days, Digvijay had been campaigning in Rajgarh seeking votes for his party against his younger brother.
Laxman Singh's decision to quit Congress and join BJP did create some problems for Digvijay and he was hard put to explain this decision on the part of his younger brother.
During the November 2008 Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress had won in five out of the eight Assembly segments in the Rajgarh Parliamentary constituency and because of this, the party is hopeful of winning this time.
Digvijay Singh has in his long political career lost only one Lok Sabha election in 1989 when he was defeated by Pyarelal Khandelwal from the Rajgarh constituency.
Digvijay Singh during the campaign in Rajgarh has said that a victory for the Congress in the constituency was a matter of prestige for him. But there was speculation in the media that he was not very seriously interested in the Congress winning in Rajgarh.
This speculation was caused by his statement that "Laxman Singh was his younger brother and would always remain."
Digvijay had made this statement when he had come to Rajgarh at the time of filing of nomination by Narayan Singh from the constituency.
Apart from Rajgarh, the other constituencies where polling will take place and which are important are Chhindwara, Guna, Jhabua, Indore and Mandsaur.
Union Ministers Kamalnath, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kantilal Bhuria are contesting from Chhindwara, Guna and Jhabua respectively while the BJP nominees in Indore and Mandsaur are Sumitra Mahajan and Dr Laxmi Narayan Pandey. While Mahajan has already won six times in a row from Indore, Dr Pandey has returned from Mandsaur for at least eight times. |