Top contests of 2014: Sushma Swaraj versus Lakshman Singh

Vidisha (MP), March 24: The Vidisha constituency in

is set to see an intense contest between BJP's

and Congress's Lakshman Singh. The latter, the younger brother of senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, returned to the Congress last year after quitting it in 2004 to join the BJP.

[Read: Top contests of 2014]

2009 result: Sushma Swaraj defeated Samajwadi Party's Choudhary Munabbar Salim by a whopping 3,89,844 votes. Swaraj had polled almost 79 per cent of votes then.

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Vidisha will go to the polls on April 24.

About Sushma Swaraj (BJP)

The former chief minister of Delhi and minister in Haryana government, Sushma Swaraj has served as the MP in both Houses of the Parliament and also as a minister in the NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In 1999, she had lost to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in a high-profile clash in Bellary in Karnataka. Sushma Swaraj took over as the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha from LK Adavni in 2009 end. In 2004, Swaraj had threatened to shave her head off if Sonia Gandhi became the PM. She did not have to do it since Sonia chose to make Manmohan Singh the prime minister.

About Lakshman Singh (Congress)

Laxman Singh, who is confident of defeating Sushma Swaraj, returned to the Congress in January last year. Singh began his political career from Raghogarh municipality in 1987 and was elected twice as the MLA from Raghogarh constituency. He was also elected as the MP from Rajgarh constituency, four time as a Congress member and once as a BJP member. He had quit the Congress to join the BJP in 2004 amid high drama but was expelled from the party in 2010 after he openly criticised its the then president Nitin Gadkari. In 2009, he lost to Congress's Narayansingh Amlabee by 24,388 votes in Rajgarh.

Analysis: In 2009, Sushma Swaraj earned an easy win after nomination papers of the Congress candidate, Rajkumar Patel, were rejcted on some grounds. Singh said the same would not be repeated this time and his opponent will have a tougher fight. He also said the fact that Sushma Swaraj did not visit her constituency often after the 2009 polls would also go against her. Sushma's fight against MP's son-of-the-soil won't be certainly easy but she will have the Modi and Shivraj Singh factor behind her. The contest will hence be an absorbing one.

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