Before the rally of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Mandla, Madhya Pradesh, a flexboard poster displayed on the main stage mistakenly included a photo of Union Minister and BJP candidate Faggan Singh Kulaste with other Congress leaders.
The photograph of the BJP leader, who was the target of Rahul Gandhi’s campaign, was quickly substituted with an image of Congress MLA Rajneesh Harvansh Singh. Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the public rally in Dhanora village of the Mandla Lok Sabha constituency, supporting Congress candidate Omkar Singh, came just one day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s impressive roadshow in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.
PM Modi intensified the BJP’s campaign in the state on Sunday with a massive roadshow, accompanied by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, drawing thousands of attendees. The Prime Minister’s campaign targeted the Mahakoshal region, including the Congress stronghold of Chhindwara, while Rahul Gandhi is slated to address a public meeting in Dhanora, located in the southern Seoni district.
Seoni and Shahdol, traditionally Congress-supporting tribal regions, witnessed the party’s strong performance in the recent Assembly elections, securing 22 of the 47 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes.
In Mandla, the Union Minister and six-time BJP MP, Faggan Singh Kulaste, is up against the former minister and four-time Congress MLA from Dindori-ST, Omkar Singh Markam. This matchup echoes the 2014 election, in which Kulaste was victorious by a margin of over one lakh votes. However, Kulaste did lose the recent assembly election in his home constituency of Niwas-ST.
The Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh are scheduled to be conducted in four phases, with the first phase on April 19, followed by subsequent phases on April 26, May 7, and May 13.
Madhya Pradesh, with its 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, stands as the sixth-largest state in India in terms of parliamentary representation. Of these constituencies, 10 seats are designated as reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), while the remaining 19 are general seats.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) achieved a significant triumph in Madhya Pradesh, claiming 28 of the 29 seats. The Indian National Congress (INC) succeeded in securing just one seat, Chhindwara.