Sagar: Sagar, a major centre of the Bundelkhand region, has been supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 1996. The saffron party has been winning Lok Sabha election for six consecutive terms. And this time around too, the voters appear to be in mood to support the party as they feel that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be given another term. Voting in Sagar will be held on 12 May in the sixth phase.
Sagar, about 172 km northeast MP’s state capital Bhopal, is situated almost in the centre of India. Its original name “Saugor” is an amalgamation of two words—sau (hundred) and garh (forts). With time, the name has changed from Saugor to Sagar.
Sagar Lok Sabha constituency consists of eight Assembly seats—Sagar, Naryvali, Khurai, Bina, Surkhi (falling in Sagar district), Shamsabad, Sironj, Kurwai (falling in Vidisha district). Even during the recent Assembly elections, when Congress managed to form the government in Madhya Pradesh, voters of Sagar stood firm with the BJP and seven seats went to BJP’s kitty, while one to Congress. Even the local municipal corporation is dominated by BJP.
In the 2014 election, BJP’s Laxmi Narayan Yadav won the seat by a margin of over 1.25 lakh votes. However, because of his old age, the party decided to field Raj Bahadur Singh from the seat; Singh is from the Dangi Thakur community (OBC). He enjoys the “blessings” of a powerful leader of the area, Bhupendra Singh Thakur, who was the Home Minister in the previous BJP government. BJP’s main rival Congress has given ticket to Prabhu Singh Thakur, also from the same community.
The BJP campaign is revolving mostly around Narendra Modi and his achievements during the last five years and also nationalism and national security. At the same time, the party is also highlighting the failures of the Congress’ Kamal Nath government and how it failed to fulfill its promises.
The Congress, however, is telling the voters how Sagar’s development has been zero under six BJP MPs. According to Sandeep Sablok, a senior Congress leader of Sagar, the youth of the region are forced to migrate to other cities due to lack of good education and employment. “The area is dominated by farmers. But nothing was done for them. As a result, at least two dozen farmers committed suicide in the last five years,” he told this correspondent.
However, BJP’s Shailendra Thakur said several development projects have been undertaken under the Modi regime. “Sagar was selected as one of the cities under the Smart City project. Several developmental works under the project are underway. Besides, the Bina-Katni tripling of railway line is 80% complete. A new Kendriya Vidyalaya was opened last year,” he said.
The Congress is highlighting the fact that while Prabhu Singh Thakur is an experienced leader, two-time MLA from Bina and a minister in the state government, the BJP candidate is just a ward councillor. However, when asked why Congress candidates lost in seven of the eight constituencies in the area, Sablok said that was because of the wrong selection of the candidates.
However, a majority in the area are supporting the BJP because of the Modi factor. “I don’t care who the candidate is. This is a national election and I think Modi can lead the nation well. Therefore, we are for Modi,” said Triloki Chand, a trader .