Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency – whether it is before the polling or after it – has been in the limelight.
It has happened after former chief minister and Congress candidate Digvijaya Singh picked up the gauntlet and challenged BJP MP Rodmal Nagar.
Ergo, it was not out of the context that after the constituency went to polls on Tuesday and recorded 75.39% of voter turnout, both the parties claimed their victory.
The voter’s turnout was 64.3% in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, and it was 74.39% in 2019.
This election has become important for Singh, because he contested against BJP’s Pragya Thakur from Bhopal in 2019, and lost to her by a huge margin.
Once Rajgarh was considered Singh’s citadel, but his influence seems to have waned away with the passage of time, and the BJP made inroads into his fortress.
In this election, Singh worked hard and made an emotional appeal to voters, saying this would be his last electoral battle.
Rajgarh Lok Sabha consists of eight assembly seats – Chanchora, Raghogarh, Narsinghgarh, Biora, Rajgarh, Khilchipur, Sarangpur and Susner.
The BJP has won six assembly seats and the Congress two. In the 2023 assembly election, the average polling reported from these assembly seats was 83.94%.
But the voter’s turnout in the Lok Sabha election was less than what was seen in the assembly election.
Sources in the Congress said the percentage of voting in the Lok Sabha election was less than that of the assembly polls, since the BJP voters remained indoors on the polling day.
The BJP, however, has portrayed a different picture, saying the party will win the seat, because the voting percentage was very high.
Congress spokesperson Bhupendra Gupta said, “In northern India, the first vote went to the Congress. The Congress voters came out of their homes in large numbers and encouraged others to support the party. But the BJP supporters stayed away from polling booths, because the party’s slogan was – aabki bar 400 paar,” Gupta said.
BJP leader Rajnish Agarwal said, “In this election, the percentage of polling in Rajgarh was higher than that of previous Lok Sabha elections, which was 64.3% in 2014 and 74.39% in 2019.”
The Congress’s veteran has worked hard and his team taken the voters to the polling booths, but the BJP will have the last laugh, Agarwal said.
