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Sunday, May 02, 2004

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National - Elections 2004

A multi-cornered race in Satna

Lalit Shastri

SATNA

The Satna parliamentary constituency in the Vindhya region of Madhya Pradesh has always acted as a barometer of the rising influence of the third force that has, over the last few elections, continued to leave its imprint on the State's highly polarised electoral politics dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.

The BJP's Ramanand Singh won the Satna seat in the 1999 elections by a slender margin of 3,405 votes, defeating his nearest rival, the former State Industries Minister, Rajendra Singh of the Congress party, who had been denied the ticket for the 1998 Assembly polls as his name had figured in a corruption-related Lok Ayukta inquiry. While 35 per cent voted in favour of the BJP, the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate, who came third, secured 25.31 per cent of the votes in that election. The 1999 election was a repeat of the 1998 electoral battle. In that election too, Rajendra Singh lost to Ramanand Singh by over 5,000 votes. In the 1996 parliamentary election, the senior Congress leader, Arjun Singh was relegated to the third place in this constituency.

This time the electoral battle is proving to be a tough multi-cornered contest, primarily between the Congress candidate, Rajendra Singh, the BJP candidate, Ganesh Singh (who only recently left the Janata Dal (U) to join the BJP), the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate, Narendra Singh and the Samajwadi Party candidate, Narain Tripathi.

The BJP campaign did not get off to a smooth start, as there was considerable resentment in the BJP camp over the choice of the party candidate. Some of the BJP cadres, when approached, told this correspondent that there was a lot of anger among party workers on the issue. However, others expressed optimism saying that the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti's election tour of Satna constituency has gone a long way towards boosting the sagging morale of the BJP cadres.

There are eight Assembly segments falling under the Satna constituency. These are Maihar, Nagod, Raigon, Chitrakoot, Satna, and Amarpatan in Satna district and Badwara and Vijairaghogarh in Katni district. The Congress candidate, Rajendra Singh is also the Congress MLA from Amarpatan. Obviously, he has considerable support base in that Assembly segment. The Samajwadi Party candidate, Narayan Tripathi is the sitting MLA from Maihar. On the other hand, the sitting MLA from Nagod is Nagendra Singh of the BJP, while the sitting MLA from Raigon, Jugal Kishore Bagdi is also from the BJP.

Travelling through this constituency and talking to a cross-section of voters, one gathers that while the Samajwadi Party candidate may have an edge over the BJP in the rural areas of Maihar, the majority of the urban voters in this Assembly segment would side with the BJP. Similarly in Amarpatan, the Congress is likely to manage a lead over the BJP. But the story could be different in Nagod and Raigon, where the BJP has a strong base. What adds up to BJP's support base in Raigon is the recent entry of the former Congress MLA from Raigon, Dhirendra Singh into the BJP.

Even though the BJP's Ramanand Singh lost the last Assembly election from Chitrakoot, the BJP cadres do not see this as a handicap. Some BJP workers told this correspondent that the Congress MLA, Prem Singh, whose area of influence is mainly the Barondha Riyasat, is not putting his entire weight behind the Congress campaign due to inner party rivalry and what gives them further hope in this territory is the traditional support the BJP expects to get from the OBCs and the Brahmin community.

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