The Hindu : All eyes on BJP nominee from Bhopal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 15, 2004

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Other States - Madhya Pradesh

All eyes on BJP nominee from Bhopal

By Lalit Shastri

BHOPAL, MARCH 14. After the announcement of the Bharatiya Janata Party's list of candidates for the parliamentary elections in Uttar Pradesh, the speculations today ended over the question whether or not the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee would accept the Madhya Pradesh BJP leaders' request to contest the upcoming parliamentary election from Bhopal.

Now the big question is who would get the BJP ticket to contest the parliamentary election from Bhopal -- a seat that was being represented by the Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, in the thirteenth Lok Sabha.

After the State Bharatiya Janata Party election committee met here yesterday to consider the names of probable candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, the State unit BJP President, Kailash Joshi had told mediapersons that no panel had been prepared for the Bhopal parliamentary seat as they were waiting for a response from the Prime Minister, who had been approached to contest from the State Capital.

Mr. Joshi had informed journalists after yesterday's State Election Committee meeting that a single candidate was being recommended to the Central Election Committee of the party for 11 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the State. A panel of two names was being sent for 12 parliamentary seats while a panel of three names was being forwarded for approval for five other seats. There was nothing water-tight about these recommendations as the Central Election Committee was free to add or delete names at the ultimate "consideration" stage, he pointed out.

The Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, had also reiterated while talking to a group of mediapersons that she had personally requested Mr. Vajpayee to contest the parliamentary election from Bhopal.

The Bhopal parliamentary constituency has remained BJP's strong bastion since the 1989 parliamentary election when the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary, Sushil Chandra Verma won this seat for the first time and continued with his winning spree by representing the Bhopal constituency repeatedly in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth Lok Sabha. In the 1999 parliamentary election Ms. Bharti was elected from Bhopal. She had polled 55.09 per cent votes against 37.79 per cent votes polled by her nearest Congress party rival, Suresh Pachouri.

In the 1998 Assembly election, the Congress party had won the Bhopal (South) Assembly constituency, which happens to be the biggest Assembly constituency in the country in terms of the number of voters, along with the primarily rural Berasia constituency and the Bhopal North constituency, where the Muslim voters are a dominating factor. It was only the semi-urban Govindpura constituency which was retained by the senior State BJP leader and now a State Minister, Babulal Gaur.

In the just concluded Assembly election, the Bhopal North seat that remains highly polarized due to the minority factor has been retained by Congress party's, Arif Aqueel. However the BJP has once again held sway over the Govindpura, Bhopal (South) and the Berasia Assembly seats. Obviously the Bhopal parliamentary seat is today being considered as a strong BJP citadel.

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All eyes on BJP nominee from Bhopal