Congress' Gurjar Candidate Narendra Patel For BJP Citadel Khandwa (image-Facebook/Narendra Patel)

With a significant population comprising the Gurjar community, Congress candidate Narendra Patel will be fighting for the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh. Patel”s main opponent is BJP”s sitting MP Gyaneshwar Patil, also a Gurjar, looking for another term.

Patel, who began his political career with the Youth Congress, has held several positions in the Block and District Congress. Currently serving as the General Secretary in the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, Patel’s uncle, Tarachand Patel, has been elected as a Lok Sabha MP from the Khargone seat and as an MLA from the Barwah assembly.

One of the 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, the Khandwa seat has primarily been a battleground between two national parties: Congress and the BJP. While it used to be dominated by the Congress, BJP candidate Nandkumar Chauhan established the party’s dominance by winning the seat in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2004. In the 2009 elections, Congress wrested the seat back, with Arun Yadav winning 3.9 lakh votes. However, the grand old party’s win did not last long as the Khandwa seat was taken over by the Modi wave.

Chauhan won again with a whopping 7.1 lakh votes, while Yadav secured 4.5 lakh votes. The subsequent election also had a similar result, with Chauhan securing the seat with 8.3 lakh votes while Congress’ Yadav won 5.6 lakh votes. In the by-polls, Gyaneshwar Patil won with 6.3 lakh votes, defeating Congress candidate Raj Narayan Purni, who won 5.5 lakh votes.

The Khandwa Lok Sabha seat has eight Vidhan Sabhas, such as Bagali (ST), Mandhata, Khandwa (SC), Pandhana (ST), Nepanagar (ST), Burhanpur, Bikhangaon (ST), and Badwah. With the exception of Bikhangaon, represented by Congress, all the other legislative assembly seats have BJP candidates representing them.

There is a significant ST (34.3 percent), SC (10.9 percent), and Muslim population (12.49 percent) in Khandwa.