2018 polls: Congress, BJP eye segments with slim margin

BHOPAL: With less than two years to go for the next assembly elections in the state, both opposition Congress and ruling BJP have identified 90 out of 230 assembly segments where the candidates have either won or lost by a margin of less than 10,000 votes in 2013.
In exactly 46 of these seats, candidates won by a margin of less than 5,000 votes. While Congress has 15 legislators with slim margins, the BJP has 27.Three of these seats are with the BSP, which has four MLAs in the assembly, and one with an independent. At least six of these seats with less than 5,000 margin are held by ministers of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government including finance minister Jayant Malaiya who won Damoh by a margin of 4953 votes against Congress’ Chandrabhan Bhaiyya. Among others are minister for industry and commerce Maya Singh and minister for agricultural development Gaurishankar Bisen. BJP’s Parul Sahu won by the slimmest margin of 141 votes while the party’s former minister Hari Shankar Khatik lost by only 233 votes. BSP’s Sheela Tyagi won by 275 votes against BJP’s Pannabai Prajapati.
In 2018 elections, these will be the seats that can swing either way based on the election issues and candidates fielded. “We have labelled these seats and worked out a strategy. However, we are not a position to disclose the plan,” said state Congress chief spokesman KK Mishra. “An exercise has been carried out to find the reason why we lost those seats and also how we won some of those constituencies by small margins. A team of the party visited these segments and conducted a survey,” he added. “Some of these winning margins are so slim that it could easily swing to the other party,” a senior Congress leader said. “A little hard work and a good candidate could change the ballgame.”
In the ongoing BJP’s working committee meet at Sagar also, the issue of assembly segments won or lost with slim margins will be discussed. Speaking to reporters, state BJP spokesman VD Sharma said the issue though not on the meeting agenda will nevertheless be discussed and strategy planned out. “Party is definitely working on these constituencies where we won or lost by small margins,” he said.