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Straight fights between Congress and BJP in four MP seats

The ruling Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party are engaged in straight fights in four assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh where by-elections will be held on Thursday.

The Congress will strive to put behind its ''poor'' performance in the last Lok Sabha elections and the BJP will try to repeat its good showing.

Among the seats going to the polls, the Congress had won Rajim and Sohagpur in the last assembly elections while the BJP had bagged Jabalpur (Central) and Bhojpur.

The results of the Lok Sabha elections that followed also reveal that the Congress is strong in Rajim and Sohagpur and BJP, in Jabalpur (central) and Bhojpur.

Family members of three political heavyweights are contesting this time. The son of former chief minister and Congress MP Shyam Charan Shukla, Amitesh Shukla, is contesting for the Rajim seat under the Congress banner.

Brajesh Singh, the son of former Gujarat governor, the late K P Singh, is in the fray from Jabalpur (central) as a Congress nominee while the widow of BJP leader and former minister Onkar Prasad Tiwari, Anaro Devi, is fighting the elections on a BJP ticket.

Shyama Charan Shukla and Union Rural Development Minister Sunderlal Patwa won from Rajim and Bhojpur respectively in the previous assembly elections. The seats fell vacant after the two were elected to the Lok Sabha.

Elections to the Sohagpur and Jabalpur (central) seats were called following the deaths of the sitting members, K P Singh and Onkar Prasad Tiwari respectively.

There are 28 candidates are in the fray in the four constituencies. There are five in Rajim, six in Bhojpur, nine in Sohagpur and eight in Jabalpur (central).

The Bahujan Samaj Party, considered a third political force in the state, has fielded no candidates in these seats.

Two eunuchs are also in the race in Jabalpur (central) and Sohagpur.

The votes are to be counted on February 25 and the results announced the same day. UNI

Assembly Election 2000

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