MP Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Six of Madhya Pradesh's 29 Lok Sabha seats will go to polls in the first phase on Friday (April 19). Among the seats going to polls in the first phase are Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Mandla, Balaghat and Chhindwara seats.
For six seats, 88 candidates are in the fray, including former Chief Minister Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath from Chhindwara and Union Minister Faggan Singh Kulaste from Mandla (ST). Jabalpur has the highest 19 candidates while Shadold has the lowest ten candidates in the fray.
Nearly 1.12 crore electorates, including 57.02 lakh men, 55.66 lakh women, and 184 third-gender individuals, are eligible to exercise their franchise during the first phase on Friday for which 13,570 polling booths have been set up.
For the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his campaigning with a huge roadshow in Jabalpur on April 7. Jabalpur is a part of the Mahakoshal region and comprises Chhindwara, the only Lok Sabha seat the BJP could not win in the 2019 polls.
Chhindwara is a stronghold of Congress veteran Kamal Nath, who held the seat from 1998 to 2019. In 2019, Kamal Nath's son won this seat for the Congress. The BJP had swept the remaining 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh.
In Chhindwara, the BJP has fielded Vivek 'Bunty' Sahu to take on Nakul Nath. Sahu had unsuccessfully contested against Kamal Nath in the assembly elections last year. In the assembly elections 2023, Sahu secured 95,708 votes (40.83%), while Kamal Nath garnered 132,208 (56.44%). Kamal Nath had also defeated Sahu in the 2019 by-polls over 25,000 votes.
Chhindwara is being touted as the mother of all battles in the electoral arena of Madhya Pradesh. India Today reported that the Congress’s biggest strength is Chhindwara's tribal vote, which has remained loyal to the party over the years.
Before the defection of Kamlesh Shah, all seven assembly segments under the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat were held by the Congress, as was the municipal corporation. Ahead of the elections, Chhindwara mayor Vikram Ahake joined the BJP.
In Mandla, Congress has fielded former minister and MLA Omkar Singh Markam against the sitting MP and Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste.
Madhya Pradesh had recorded 61.57 per cent voting in the 2014 general elections. The percentage rose to 71.16 in 2019. The second, third and fourth phase of the elections in MP will take place on April 26, May 7 and May 13. In 2019, the BJP had won 28 seats while the Congress had managed to win only one seat -- Chhindwara.
A helicopter has been stationed in the Naxal-hit Balaghat district while an air ambulance will be available in Jabalpur to meet any eventuality. As many as 192 flying squad teams and 233 Static Surveillance Teams will be deployed across the six constituencies.
(With inputs from PTI)