Banda, 24 April: After independence, the tricolor flag of Congress kept flying in the Lok Sabha elections or assembly elections in the country. In the Lok Sabha elections of 1952, 1957 and 1962, Congress candidates scored a hat-trick. But now the difficult times of Congress are such that its hand is not visible anywhere in Bundelkhand.
Congress has not got victory in Banda Chitrakoot parliamentary seat for the last 40 years. In the last elections, the deposits of Congress candidates on all the four seats of Bundelkhand were confiscated. Now the situation is such that this time the symbol of Congress, the hand, will not be visible on three seats except Jhansi.
After independence in Bundelkhand till 1991, Congress candidates kept registering their presence by winning the elections. Congress candidates won in Jhansi Lok Sabha in 1952, 57, 62, 67, 71, 80 and 1984. Congress won Jalaun Lok Sabha seat in 1952, 57, 62, 67 and 1971. Congress won the Banda Chitrakoot parliamentary seat in 1952 and 1957.
After this, due to competition between the Communists and the Congress, sometimes the Congress flag was hoisted and sometimes the Communist flag was hoisted. Congress last won the elections in 1984. Then Bhishma Dev Dubey of Congress had won. Since then Congress is yearning for victory.
Same is the situation in Hamirpur Mahoba Lok Sabha seat. Congress has won here seven times so far. From 1952 to 1971, Congress continued to register victories here and later also won in 1980 and 1984. But after 1991, Congress did not get victory here either. If we talk about the last Lok Sabha elections, the deposits of Congress candidates were confiscated on all four seats of Bundelkhand. Bal Kumar Patel of Congress was the candidate in Banda Lok Sabha constituency, who could get only 75438 votes. Brijlal Khabri had got 89,555 votes in Jalaun. In Jhansi, Shivsharan Kushwaha had got 86,139 votes. Similarly, in Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency, Congress’s Pritam Singh was able to secure 1,13534 votes. The deposits of these four candidates were confiscated.
This time there is an alliance between Congress and SP in the Lok Sabha elections. Due to which only Jhansi seat has come to Congress’s account, whereas SP candidates will contest on Banda Mahoba and Jalaun seats. Due to the alliance, this time Congress’ symbol hand will be missing from EVM. Now it remains to be seen how much the alliance will benefit Congress.
Senior journalist Sudhir Nigam says that there was an alliance between SP and BSP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. BSP’s cadre vote had gone to SP, which is why SP and BSP candidates had given a tough fight to BJP candidates. Even if traditional voters of Congress vote for SP in this election, SP is not expected to get much benefit, because now Congress does not have the same support base as before.
