Incumbency, and not anti-incumbency, has remained a factor in the Dhamtari assembly constituency of Chhattisgarh.
For the last three decades, voters in Dhamtari—one of the prominent centres of rice trade in the state—have not “forgiven” the political party that dares to drop its sitting legislator in the constituency. Anti-incumbency has always remained a big factor for the political parties.
But the trend is just opposite in Dhamtari, where election campaign came to a halt on Wednesday along with 38 other constituencies in the state that will go to the polls on November 14 in the first phase of election.
In 1977, Pandrirao Kushalrao won the election on Janata Party ticket by bagging 53.85 per cent vote share. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) denied him ticket and pitted Sanmukhdas Panjwani as its official candidate. Panjwani lost the election to Congress’ Jayaben.
In 1985 state polls, Congress repeated Jayaben and she won the election comfortably, defeating BJP’s Kriparam Sahu.
Going against the electorate mindset, the Congress fielded Kesrimal Lunkkad as its official candidate in the 1990 assembly election. But he lost to BJP’s Kriparam Sahu, who was made a minister in the Sunderlal Patwa government.
The BJP dropped Sahu in 1993 mid-term poll and fielded Ramavtar Mishra as its official candidate. People voted for Congress’ Lunkkad in the election.
In 1998, Congress party gave ticket to Lunkkad but he refused to contest the election on health ground. The party gave ticket to Harshad Mehta, who won the election.
In 2003, Congress denied ticket to Mehta, paving the way for BJP’s Inder Chopra to defeat Congress heavyweight Gurmukh Singh Hora by more than 14,000 votes.
This time, the BJP has dropped its sitting MLA and has fielded Bipin Sahu to taken on Congress’ Gurmukh Singh Hora. The Congress party has a reason to smile.
