Lahar: BJP’s Ambrish Sharma Ends 23-Year-Long Congress Saga
Lahar was one among the constituencies in which the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh witnessed an unprecedented turn favouring the central ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ending the twenty-three-year long unbroken saga of Indian National Congress (INC) in Lahar, BJPs Ambrish Sharma won the 2023 state assembly election from the seat and marked a historical turn for the party.
In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP was expecting an easy win looking back to the state’s previous history, while Congress expected a reversal. The sitting Chief Minister, Mr Chouhan, is there in the office since 2005, except a two-year break in 2018 to 2020. He is the longest-serving CM of Madhya Pradesh (4 times) and also the national Vice-President of BJP – a steadfast labourer of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
But beating Lahar was not an easy task. Having over 2.5 lakh voters in total, the constituency was a strong-hold of Congress for the last 23-years, where the party usually secures majority of its tribal votes. Dr Govind Singh had been the preferred choice of the people for the past seven elections. Mr Singh, who is currently the Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, first contested elections from the Lahar constituency in 1990 on a Janata Dal party ticket, which he won. He continued the victory saga since then from the Congress label and became part of numerous developmental projects in the constituency.
As counting for the 2023 assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh concluded, the constituency was bagged by BJP leader Ambrish Sharma, with a vote margin of 12,397. He secured 75,347 votes in total while the sitting MLA and Congress leader Dr Govind Singh managed to earn only 62950 votes in total.
Lahar is one of the 230 legislative assembly constituencies of the central Indian state, and it came into existence in 1951. It is one of the 5 assembly constituencies located in the Bhind district and is also a part of the Bhind Lok Sabha constituency. Lahar, as said by India Today has 251,000 voters in total. Of these, 137,000 are male voters and 114,000 are female voters. The majority are reserved groups including almost 53,000 from Scheduled Castes and 1,000 from Scheduled Tribes. At least 95,000 belongs to Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 8,000 were from Minority communities. 94,000 of the voter population were from General category.
