Election campaign for Sanver and Khargone bypolls gains momentum

Indore, Nov 12 (UNI) With the Deepawali festival concluding, election campaign for by-elections to Khargone Lok Sabha and Sanver Assembly constituencies is gathering momentum.

Polling for the two by-elections is scheduled to take place on December 12. Poll notification would be issued on November 16.

The by-poll for Khargone Lok Sabha seat was necessitated after senior BJP leader Krishnamurari Moghe was disqualified as a MP in an Office of Profit case.

The Assembly seat of Sanver was vacated by the demise of state minister Prakash Sonkar.

The Bharatiya Janshakti (BJ) received an early jolt in Sanver when its candidate Santosh Malviya deserted the BJ and joined the BJP during its the 'Diwali' meet' programme in the presence of its state general secretary Makhan Singh yesterday.

Mr Narayan Singh Kushwah, Mr Gaya Prasad and Mr Munne Thekedar, who were office-bearers in the dissolved BJ executive, also joined the BJP.

Meanwhile, the BJP's strategy to field a relative of Mr Sonkar from Sanver had affected due to the defeat of former minister later Dilip Singh Bhatere's wife Dhareshwari Bhatere in Lanji Assembly by-poll recently.

The Congress was witnessing a tug of war over selection of candidate in Sanver. The Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia is pitching hard for his candidate former parliamentary secretary Tulsi Silawat.

On the other hand, legislator Premchand Guddu was seeking candidature of his supporter.

Mr Moghe's candidature as the BJP candidate from Khargone had been decided earlier, while candidature of the state Congress President Subhash Yadav's son Arun Yadav was almost final.

Earlier, reports of the BJ President Uma Bharti contesting the Khargone by-poll had heated political atmosphere. However, she had said her contesting would depend upon the verdict of a court case against her in Tamil Nadu.

Probable candidates for both Khargone Lok Sabha and Sanver Assembly segments had intensified their public relations campaign since the past few days.

In view of defeat at the hands of the SP candidate Kishor Samrite in Lanji Assembly by-poll, both these by-elections have become important for the ruling BJP as well as the main opposition Congress before Assembly elections in the state next year.

UNI