Madhya Pradesh elections 2018: These 25 seats are a serious headache for Congress

Bhopal, Sept 24: The Congress has been out of power in Madhya Pradesh for 15 years now. Even though it hasn't done too badly in terms of vote shares, the Grand Old Party has found it challenging to do well in over 100 seats. In 24 seats, the Congress hasn't won in the past 25 years. In the last five Assembly elections, the party has lost in 25 seats four times while in 51 seats, it has lost three times. From trying its own candidates several times to supporting Independents or winning candidates from other parties, the Congress has tried it all but of little avail.

Madhya Pradesh has seen five Assembly elections between 1993 and 2013 and the party has only slipped in these two decades. The last time the Congress came to power in MP was in 1993 when Digvijaya Singh became the chief minister and he continued in power for a decade. It was even then that the Congress couldn't cement its grip on 25 seats in 17 districts and it is waiting for a win in these seats even today.

These 25 seats a challenge for Congress

These jinxed 25 Assembly constituencies of the Congress in MP are: Ambah (Morena district); Mehgaon (Bhind); Pohri and Shivpuri (Shivpuri); Ashoknagar (Ashoknagar); Rehli and Sagar (Sagar); Maharajpur (Chhatarpur); Jabalpur Cantonment (Jabalpur); Barghat and Seoni (Seoni); Damoh (Damoh); Raigaon and Rampur Baghelan (Satna); Teonthar and Deotalab (Rewa); Sohagpur (Hoshangabad); Govindpura (Bhopal); Bidisha (Bididha); Ashta and Sehore (Sehore); Harsud and Khandwa (Khandwa) and Indore-II and Indore-IV (Indore).

In these seats, the Congress left no stone unturned hoping for a change of fortune but nothing paid off. Hari Singh Narwariya was fielded three times from Bhind but he could not win even once. Hari Vallabh Shukla from Shivpuri was denied a ticket after he lost in 1998 but when he contested from an obscure party's (Samanta Dal) ticket from the same seat in 2003, he won.

Similarly, Rewa's Rajmai Patel had won from Sirmaur on a Congress ticket in 1998 but he lost there to CPI(M) and BSP candidates in 2003. In 2008, Patel was fielded from Semariya constituency but he lost there as well.