A tough contest is likely between ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee and Home Minister Uma Shankar Gupta and young Congress candidate Sanjeev Saxena from Bhopal Dakshin-Paschim Assembly constituency.
A total 2,02,919 voters, including 94,711 women, are expected to exercise their franchise to determine the fate of 11 candidates contesting from the constituency that has been returning Gupta since 2003. In 2003, he wrested Bhopal South from the Congress’ PC Sharma by securing 52.26 per cent of votes cast. Five years later, the Congress reposed faith in Deepchand Yadav from the constituency which became Bhopal Dakshin-Paschim following delimitation to take on the BJP bigwig.
However, Yadav came a distant third with Saxena who was granted the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket occupying second spot. He was vanquished by Gupta by a margin of 25,403. Gupta received 51.03 per cent of the total votes cast while Saxena could manage 23.79 per cent. Desirous of settling scores with Gupta, Sharma was hoping to get the Congress ticket.
However, his party reposed faith in Saxena, an engineering graduate from the city-based Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) and owns several academic institutes in the state capital and seems quite capable of giving the incumbent a run for his money with his stronghold in slums. Other contestants include the BSP’s Rakesh Parve, Revolutionary Socialist Party’s Babulal Malviya, Jai Manavta Party’s Manvati Tiwari, Gondwana Ganatantra Party’s Raghubeer Singh Markam, Bahujan Sangharsh Dal’s Siddharth More and four Independents.
Since the Nineties, the Bhopal South constituency witnessed a contest between the lotus and the hand. In 1998, Sharma wrested the seat from two-time BJP legislator Shailendra Pradhan who humbled closest Congress rivals NP Sharma and Manak Agrawal in 1990 and 1993 respectively. The saffron party emerged victorious from the constituency for the first time when Hasnat Siddiqui wrested it from closest Congress rival and then legislator Satyanarayana Agrawal in 1985. Significantly, former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur won the seat on a Janata Party ticket in 1977.