Amarwara bypoll: A battle of prestige for BJP & Congress

Bhopal : Winning the Amarwara Assembly segment in Madhya Pradesh is a matter of prestige for both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

Amarwara is one of the assembly constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) in Chhindwara district, which will go for bypoll on Wednesday.

Having three-time former MLA Kamlesh Shah as its candidate and some other prominent local politicians including Chhindwara Mayor Vikram Ahake and former CM Kamal Nath’s close aide Deepak Saxena on its side, the BJP is determined to win the seat to keep the morale high after winning all 29 Lok Sabha seats.

BJP MP Chief V. D. Sharma on Tuesday said that the Amarwara bypoll is very crucial and the BJP’s victory would set the path of development.

“After winning Chhindwara Lok Sabha, we are confident that we will win the Amarwara seat also. I would appeal to the people of Amarwara to exercise their voting rights in large numbers,” Sharma said.

Congress, on the other hand, having nothing to lose after back-to-back (Assembly and Lok Sabha) humiliating electoral defeats in the state is hoping to retain the seat.

Congress this time has fielded a debutant Dheeransah Invati and is hopeful to retain the seat especially when the party’s three MLAs shifted into BJP. The party failed to even win a single seat under the new leadership in the state.

The result of the Amarwara bypoll will not change much as the BJP has already bagged 163 out of 230 assembly seats and the Congress, which has won 66, three of its MLAs have already switched to the BJP including Kamlesh Shah, who had won Amarwara seat in December last year.

The fight between the two rival parties is about prestige and to keep the morale high of the workers. For the BJP, winning Amarwara is a matter of prestige especially when it has fielded Shah as candidate. Second, the BJP has wrested the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat from Congress for the first time but they have lost all seven assembly seats in December 2023.

The bypoll in Amarwara was necessitated after Kamlesh Shah, who was elected MLA for third the third consecutive term on the Congress ticket resigned from the post and party’s membership and joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

The result of the Amarwara bypoll will be declared on July 13.