Phundelal Singh Marko: Congress MLA To Break Himadri Singh's Aim For A Third Win From Shahdol (image: screen grab from facebook.com/Phundelal Singh Marko)

Phundelal Singh Marko is a Congress MLA representing the Pusprajgarh constituency. In the 2023 Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections, he retained Pusprajgarh seat for the third consecutive time. With this strong background, he is approaching the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from Madhya Pradesh”s Shahdol constituency. Pusprajgarh is part of Shahdol Lok Sabha constituency.

Phundelal Singh Marko began his political career in his student days. He became the Vice President of the Youth Congress and has been active in politics ever since. Following this, he held the position of elected member of the Shahdol district panchayat and then became vice president. In 2000, he served as the President of the Block Congress Committee, Pushprajgarh. He has also exercised other positions, including President of the M.P. Aadiwasi Vikas Parishad at Shahdol district, elected member of the district panchayat Anuppur, and vice president of the district congress committee in Anuppur. From 2007 onwards, he served as the Congress party in charge of the Pushprajgarh Assembly segment. Phundelal Singh Marko secured his first victory as legislator of the Pushprajgarh constituency in 2013, and he retained the seat in 2018 and in 2023 as well.

Shahdol is a scheduled tribe-reserved constituency and also a rural constituency. Since 1996, the BJP has been winning the constituency, except in 2009. Congress candidate Rajesh Nandini Singh won the seat on the Congress ticket in 2009. In the 2019 general elections, BJP candidate Himadri Singh won the seat by defeating Congress candidate Pramila Patel by a margin of 4,03,333 votes. Himadri Singh is seeking his second term in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.