- Vishal of Congress and Manoj of BJP are not residents of Depalpur Assembly
- Despite Kalota majority, most non-Kalota MLAs elected
Milind Mujumdar, Indore
This time as well, an outside candidate is going to become MLA again in Depalpur assembly constituency. The reason for this is that Congress has given a ticket to sitting MLA Vishal Patel, while former MLA Manoj Patel is the candidate from BJP. Both of them were face-to-face with each other in the last elections also. Both the candidates do not reside in this assembly constituency. This time, there was an issue of local candidates in Depalpur but BJP and Congress did not pay attention to this demand. No local candidate has yet become MLA in Depalpur — the rural assembly seat of Indore district. Only outside candidates have always won from here.
The special thing is that in this assembly constituency, 60,000 voters belong to Kalota community, but out of 15 assembly elections, leaders of Kalota community have become MLAs only 5 times. Apart from this, voters of Depalpur Assembly constituency have been voting for different parties many times in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
The special thing is that after the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, Congress has never won the Lok Sabha elections from this assembly constituency. In the Lok Sabha elections held after the martyrdom of the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1984, Prakash Chandra Sethi of the Congress had won with big margin, but after that the Congress was never ahead in this assembly constituency in the Lok Sabha elections. Sumitra Tai has been elected for eight consecutive terms since 1989. Mahajan has been getting an edge from here. Sumitra Tai used to call Depalpur, her second home. At the time of 2008 delimitation, it is said that Depalpur was actually to be included in Dhar Lok Sabha constituency but due to Sumitra Tai’s strategy, Mhow was included in Dhar instead of Depalpur. The reason for this is that the people of Depalpur have always made Sumitra Mahajan victorious in the Lok Sabha elections by a huge margin. Therefore, under a special strategy, Depalpur was allowed to remain in the Indore Lok Sabha constituency in the delimitation. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shankar Lalwani also won from here by a huge margin, whereas in the 2018 Assembly elections, Vishal Patel won from here by about 30,000 votes.
However, the Depalpur assembly constituency has been non-Congress inclined. In 1962, Bapu Singh Mandloi of the Socialist Party had won from here. Apart from him, Ratan Patodi of Socialist Party also won on Janata Party ticket in 1977 by defeating Congress. Late Nirbhay Singh Patel was MLA from here four times. Apart from him, Manoj Patel, son of Nirbhay Singh Patel, has won this seat twice. In this way, out of 15 assembly elections, a non-Congress MLA has been elected from here ten times. Whereas Congress has won 5 times. Another special thing is that Kalota voters dominate here but only 5 MLAs from Kalota community have won the elections. All of them except one belong to Congress. Bapu Singh Mandloi, who belonged to the Socialist Party, won for the first time from Kalota community. After this, Late Jagdish Patel, Late Rameshwar Patel, Satyanarayan Patel and Vishal Patel who come from Kalota community won the elections. Congress made all of them candidates.
The special thing is that BJP never fielded a candidate from Kalota community. Candidates from Dhakad community have won from here six times. Late Nirbhay Singh Patel has won four times and his son Manoj Patel has won twice. Whereas Vaishya candidates have won from here thrice. These are Bhagwat Sabu of Maheshwari community, Ramchandra Agarwal of Agarwal community and Ratan Patodi of Jain community. The population of Dhakad community in the area is only 6000. Apart from these, there are Rajputs, Balai, Khati, Muslims, Harijan, Gari, Naita, Bhil, whose number is around eighty thousand. Till now the local BJP camp has been considering polarization of votes of Kalota community as the basis of its victory. This time, Milk Union President Moti Singh Patel was seeking a ticket from Congress as a local candidate, but the party expressed confidence only in sitting MLA Vishal Patel. Similarly, Hindutva leader Rajendra Chaudhary had also sought a ticket from BJP. He is also a local leader but he also did not get the ticket.
Always an external leader
In the first election of 1957, Sajjan Singh Vishwanath of Congress, who was a native of Indore tehsil, won. In 1962, Bapu Singh Mandloi of Socialist Party won, whose village is in Saver tehsil. Similarly, in 1967, Bhagwat Sabu, resident of Gram Panchayat Harsola of Mhow assembly constituency, won from here. In 1972, Ramchandra Agarwal, who was a resident of Indore city, won from here. Ratan Patodi, who was a resident of Indore area number 4, won the elections in 1977. Similarly, Nirbhay Singh Patel, who won in 1980, was also a resident of Indore tehsil. Rameshwar Patel won from here in 1985. He was also not a resident of Depalpur. Jagdish Patel won from here in the by-election held after the death of late Nirbhay Singh Patel. He was also not a native of Depalpur. Similarly, Manoj Patel and Vishal Patel also won elections from here but both the leaders are not natives of Depalpur assembly constituency. Current MLA Vishal Patel is the son of late Jagdish Patel. They are also from outside Depalpur.
These are the MLAs till now…
1957 Sajjan Singh Vishnar Congress
1962 Bapu Singh Mandloi Socialist Party
1967 Bhagwat Sabu Congress
1972 Ramchandra Agarwal Congress
1977 Ratan Patodi Janata Party
1980 Nirbhay Singh Patel Bharatiya Janata Party
1985 Rameshwar Patel Congress
1990 Nirbhay Singh Patel Bharatiya Janata Party
1993 Nirbhay Singh Patel Bharatiya Janata Party
1998 Jagdish Patel Congress
2003 Manoj Patel Bharatiya Janata Party
2008 Satyanarayan Patel Congress
2013 Manoj Patel Bharatiya Janata Party
2018 Vishal Jagdish Patel Congress
