Shahdol: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh's Vindhya region on Aug. 8 ahead of the year-end assembly election in the state, sources said. Rahul is scheduled to hold public meeting at Beohari in Shahdol during his visit to woo the voters ahead of the high stakes MP assembly election.
Gandhi's visit is being highly anticipated by the state Pradesh Congress Committee as the party aims to make a comeback in Vindhya region where the party has been losing ground in recent elections. Vindhya is the fifth largest region of Madhya Pradesh boasting of as many as 30 assembly seats. The region has been a major center of politics ever since Vindhya Pradesh was abolished and Madhya Pradesh was formed.
Vindhya region is considered an important region of Madhya Pradesh's politics. According to political pundits, if any party has to gain the key to power in the state, it will have to dominate Vindhya. As for the Congress, Vindhay has been a weak link. The party has been disappearing from the region with the BJP making huge gains.
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In the last four elections held in MP in the last 20 years, Congress party did not get more than 12 seats in an election. In the 2003 assembly elections in Vindhya, the Congress got only 4 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party won 18 seats. In that election, the Samajwadi Party also surprised everyone with its performance and 3 SP candidates reached the assembly by winning the elections.
In the 2008 state election, Congress only went from bad to worse with the party winning only two seats with the BSP winning one seat more than the grand old party. In 2013 assembly elections however, the Congress made a strong comeback in Vindhya by winning 12 of the 30 seats while the BJP got 16. In 2018 assembly elections, although the Congress secured the key to power, but in Vindhya the party suffered losses.
With Rahul Gandhi's Aug. 8 visit to Shahdol, the state Congress is looking forward to woo the voters and make the lost ground in Vindhya in the year-end elections. It will be interesting to see whether Rahul Gandhi manages to play a crowd puller at the Beohari meeting and turn around the Congress' fortunes.
