- Congress made BJP’s electoral path somewhat difficult by making leader Phool Singh Baraiya its candidate from Bhind Datia Lok Sabha constituency
Mahesh Mishra, Bhind
Bhind Datia Lok Sabha seat of Gwalior Chambal division has been a stronghold of BJP for more than three decades. From here, BJP has been fighting for victory in every election to continuously increase its victory margin. The BJP, which has been winning continuously for three decades, may be trying its best to register its presence among the public on the basis of Modi’s guarantee by claiming victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but somewhere deep inside it is also doubtful.
The leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party have always been trying to make the morale of the people in their favor by making external candidates an issue and voting in favor of their candidates. At the same time, BJP has been proving successful in creating an electoral environment in its favor by preparing some new slogan for the Congress candidate and has been achieving victory, but this time the electoral path is not looking so easy for BJP. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress has made the electoral path of BJP somewhat difficult by making Dalit leader Phool Singh Baraiya its candidate from Bhind Datia Lok Sabha constituency.
In fact, despite all the efforts, BJP is not able to prove Congress candidate Phool Singh Baraiya as an outsider candidate. The reason is that Baraiya comes from Sukand village of Gormi tehsil of Mehgaon assembly constituency of Bhind district, where Baraiya’s family members have been residents ancestrally for generations. Baraiya cannot be underestimated even in terms of his education level, he has done BE in Mechanical. Baraiya does not need any introduction in the Bhind-Datia region, ever since he started his political career as an ordinary worker in the initial phase of the establishment of BSP four decades ago and has been known for his organizational skills and his ability to help the weakest of the society. Due to his association with BSP, he not only made BSP strong in the state but also got a dozen seats for this party during his state presidency in the 1993 assembly elections. To take advantage of this organizational ability of Baraiya, Congress has made him contest Assembly elections twice and Rajya Sabha elections once. Baraiya claims that the continuously increasing support base in his public relations confirms his chances of victory.
Now talking about BJP, BJP has the strong support of Modi’s guarantee to stop Congress’s victory campaign in Bhind-Datia. BJP has a large army of workers and senior leaders, with the help of which BJP is claiming victory. According to analysts who keep a close eye on the politics of Bhind, BJP candidate Sandhya Rai, originally a resident of neighboring Morena district, does not know much of anyone except a few leaders and limited workers of her party, this is the reason why BJP is not popular among the people. BJP leaders and workers are trying their best to suppress the voices of protest being raised regarding the candidate. After all, people are people, they get a chance to express their views only at the time of elections every five years, this is the reason why local voters are openly expressing their views to the candidates of different parties who are coming to seek votes. There are many questions of the public to which the candidates and their election managers have no answers.
Congress fielded Imarti Devi and Devashish, both of them left the party – One aspect is that Congress is being said to have a big cadre in the name of organization but except a few people as an exception, who is doing what? No one knows this except the election managers. Congress has been using unique experiments in every election to capture Bhind seat. Ater’s firebrand leader Satyadev Katare was contested twice and once senior journalist Udayan Sharma, a friend of late Rajiv Gandhi, was also fielded. Ever since this seat was reserved for the Scheduled Caste category, Congress placed its bets on Dalit leaders like Imrati Devi and Devashish Jararia, but both of them had to face defeat by a huge margin.
The special thing is that both Imarti Devi and Devashish leaders have now broken ties with Congress. While Imarti Devi had joined BJP along with her leader Scindia during Operation Lotus, Devashish Jararia left the party after not getting the ticket from Congress in this election and is contesting on BSP ticket.
Mayor of Morena has also been an MP
Ashok Argal, who has been a four-time MP from the neighboring Morena parliamentary seat and the first mayor of Morena Municipal Corporation, has also been elected MP from Bhind on a BJP ticket in 2014. In this way, Morena parliamentary seat has proved suitable for outside candidates. But this time the issue of outsider versus local candidates has dominated the election atmosphere here. The answer to the question on which side the electoral camel will sit in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is full of dilemmas. The local people are on silent mode, it will be difficult to tell what they will do. Only time will reveal the turn of the electoral camel.
