BHOPAL: With a 9% surge in Round-1 voting setting the tone in Madhya Pradesh, a tough contest is expected in each of the seven seats in today's voting. All seven were won by BJP in the 2014
Lok Sabha
elections when the saffron party rode the Modi wave.
What makes this phase interesting is that it is spread across three regions - Vindhyachal (Satna and Rewa),
Bundelkhand
(Tikamgarh, Damoh and Khajuraho) and
Madhya Bharat
(Hoshangabad and Betul) - each with its own electoral dynamics.
The contest is even, with the Congress government in the state banking on its farm loan waiver scheme. In the 2018 assembly elections, BJP suffered setbacks in Hoshangabad, Betul and Damoh, where it lost three seats each. It was Congress' promise to waive farm loans that proved to be a game-changer. CM Kamal Nath has announced nearly half of the beneficiaries have got the money in their accounts and the rest will get it after the Lok Sabha polls are over. The Congress is confident that the loan waiver will go in its favour.
The tribal-dominated Betul seat is headed for one of the most interesting contests. BJP's Durgadas Uike, an RSS man, and Congress youth worker Ramu Tekam - handpicked by Kamal Nath - are evenly matched. In Tikamgarh, an SC-reserved constituency, BJP nominee and Union minister Virendra Kumar Khateek is pitted against Congress newcomer Kiran Ahirwar. Khateek faces opposition from within. The BJP leadership expelled the rebel, former MLA R D Prajapati, but he is contesting from Khajuraho as an SP candidate.