5-STATE ELECTIONS: In MP, poll ambitions split families

Anup Dutta

Bhopal, October 23

An exciting contest is unfolding in the MP Assembly elections with close family members pitted against each other in at least five constituencies. It’s brother versus brother in Narmadapuram seat, uncle versus nephew in Deotalab and Timarni segments, brother-in-law versus daughter-in-law in Sagar, and samdhi (father-in-law) versus samdhan (mother-in-law) in Dabra segment.

In-laws battle it out

In Dabra, the BJP has fielded former minister Imarti Devi, while the Congress has put weight behind Suresh Raje. Son of Raje’s uncle is married to daughter of Imarti Devi’s brother, thus Raje is samdhi (father-in-law) and Imarti samdhan (mother-in-law). Imarti Devi represented the seat for three consecutive terms in 2008, 2013 and 2018 on a Congress ticket.

However, she got unlucky while contesting on a BJP ticket in the 2020 bypoll, which was necessitated after Jyotiraditya Scindia’s exit from the Congress. Imarti Devi, a staunch supporter of Scindia, defected to the BJP, while her samdhi Suresh Raje joined the Congress. In the bypoll, samdhi defeated samdhan by a margin of over 7,000 votes. This is going to be the third time when both the leaders will be facing each other.

Brother vs brother

In Narmadapuram constituency, a Brahmin family control the political pulse of the district and prominent among them are the Sharma brothers.

For over 33 years, brothers Sitasharan Sharma (younger) and Girija Shankar Sharma are affiliated to the BJP and have represented the Narmadapuram constituency. Sometime back, Girija Shankar quit the BJP and joined the Congress when the speculation was rife that the saffron party was in no mood to give ticket to Sharma brothers.

This time, sitting MLA Sitasharan is contesting against his brother Girija Shankar from the BJP and the Congress, respectively.

“Girija was fielded from the Congress days before the BJP MLA’s name was declared. The party and the candidate are putting their best efforts to ensure that the brother is defeated,” said an RSS member active in Narmadapuram, where the BJP won all the seats in the 2018 Assembly elections.

“The competition is tough,” the BJP candidate recently told mediapersons, adding that “the fight is not between two brothers but the ideologies”. Congress candidate Girija Shankar said “there is no question of withdrawing my name from the contest… I will leave no stone unturned to win the Assembly elections”.

Uncle takes on nephew

Girish Gautam, a three-time MLA and Speaker, has been fielded by the BJP against his nephew Pamesh Gautam of the Congress.

Girish, a communist-turned-saffron leader, is known as a die-hard activist, lawyer and social worker in the Vindhya region. Girish suffered defeats in 1985, 1993 and 1998 as a communist but emerged victorious on the lotus symbol in the 2003 Assembly elections. He defeated Congress stalwart and former Speaker Sriniwas Tiwari, popularly known as ‘Safed Sher’ of Vindhya region.

What hots up the contest is the fact that in the last Assembly poll, Girish won by a thin margin of 1,080 votes. The runner-up was from the Bahujan Samaj Party that has a considerable vote base in Deotalab segment in Rewa district of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

In Timarni segment, the BJP has fielded Sanjay Shah, a three-time sitting MLA, who will face his nephew Abhijeet Shah contesting on a Congress ticket for the second time. The uncle and nephew belong to the erstwhile royal family of Makrai (Gond king) and has a considerable influence in Betul-Harda parliamentary constituency.

Sanjay is younger brother of Vijay Shah (the BJP candidate from the Harsud seat), the Forest Minister who has helped the BJP grow in the tribal parts of the parliamentary constituency, which was once the Congress stronghold. In the last election, the margin of victory between uncle and nephew was 2,213 votes.