Madhya Pradesh: Congress has not won from these 14 Lok Sabha seats in 15 years

Bhopal, Mar 24: The 15-year power drought ended for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh last year but the state has 14 parliamentary constituencies which the party is yet to win in the last a decade and a half.

On the contrary, there are only two Lok Sabha seats in the state which the BJP failed to win in the same period. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 27 of the total 29 seats except for Guna and Chhindwara constituencies, which were retained by Congress stalwarts Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath, respectively.

Scindia has been representing Guna in the Lok Sabha since 2002 and has been MP from the seat for four straight terms. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has been the Chhindwara MP for 10 times and has been winning the constituency since 1980, except for in 1997 when the senior Congress leader lost to former chief minister and BJP leader Sundar Lal Patwa in a bypoll.

The saffron party has failed to wrest the two seats from the Congress in the last 15 years. The 14 Lok Sabha seats which the Congress could not win in this period are Bhopal, Indore, Vidisha, Morena, Bhind, Sagar, Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Jabalpur, Balaghat, Betul and Rewa. Except for Rewa, the BJP has been winning all these seats in the last 15 years. Bahujan Samaj Party's Deoraj Singh Patel had won Rewa in 2009.

The BJP had won the seat in 2004 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections. There are nine Lok Sabha seats in the state considered as BJP strongholds. The BJP has not faced a single defeat since 1989 in Bhopal, Indore, Vidisha, Bhind and Damoh, whereas it has been winning Morena, Sagar, Jabalpur and Betul since 1996. Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi told PTI-Bhasha that the party has taken the issue of not winning the 14 Lok Sabha seats "seriously".

"We are making efforts to win maximum seats as there is anti-incumbancy against Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Chaturvedi said.

He said the party has sought suggestions from grassroot- level workers, on the lines of the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh last November, for deciding winnable candidates for those 14 seats. "The Congress will definitely field senior leaders for Bhopal, Indore and Vidisha seats," the state Congress spokesperson said. State BJP chief spokesperson Deepak Vijayvargiya said the party will field "strong" candidates for Guna and Chhindwara and try for a "clean sweep" this time.

PTI