BJP’s Bastion Bhopal: Fresh Faces Alok Sharma And Arun Srivastava Battle It Out
Following a fiery battle between the BJP”s controversial Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Congress’ political stalwart Digvijaya Singh in the 2019 general elections, the Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency witnesses a fight between relatively new faces. While the saffron party has put its faith in former mayor Alok Sharma to retain the Bhopal seat, Congress has placed its bets on district party president Arun Srivastava to breach the BJP fortress.
The BJP has never lost a single election since 1989. The party has this time denied the ticket for the incumbent MP, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who had grabbed headlines several times for her controversial remarks. Thakur had won the seat by defeating former chief minister Digvijaya Singh by a substantial margin of 3.6 lakh votes.
Replacing Thakur is Alok Sharma, who began his political career as a student leader with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP. At a very young age, he has been associated with the RSS. Raised in grassroots politics, Sharma has held several district and state-level positions. He was appointed as the state convenor of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in 1997.
Sharma faced defeat against Congress’ Atiq Aqueel in the 2023 state assembly election. Despite the Congress win, the BJP is confident of securing victory by retaining the long-held seat along with the rest of the parliamentary seats in the state this year. Notably, during the assembly election campaign, Sharma had asked Muslim voters not to vote at all if they were not voting for the BJP. Congress had then sought legal action against Sharma’s remark.
Reportedly, Srivastava’s name was suggested as a potential candidate after holding discussions with Congress veteran Singh. With the hopes of securing Kayastha community votes, who comprise a significant section in the region. Besides, Srivastava is known to hold a good influence among the voters in the region.
However, the party does have a disadvantage in fielding a fresh face. Reports suggest that Arun Shrivastava has not been in active politics since 2003. He is an advocate by profession. Nevertheless, the party believes that a new face can dismantle anti-incumbency and secure a comfortable win in the BJP bastion.
The Bhopal Lok Sabha seat is one of the 29 parliamentary seats in Madhya Pradesh, comprising eight Vidhan Sabhas: Narela, Berasia, Bhopal Uttar, Bhopal Dakshin-Paschim, Bhopal Madhya, Sehore, Huzur, and Govindpura. In the 2023 assembly elections, the BJP won six seats while the grand old party bagged two seats.
