Congress, BJP slug it out for Garoth bypoll

The upcoming by-election to Garoth seat in Mandsaur district is crucial for Congress which is struggling hard to revive its fortunes in Madhya Pradesh after suffering successive defeats in Assembly, Lok Sabha and local bodies polls since 2003.
The bypoll, scheduled to held on June 27, is necessitated following the death of BJP MLA Rajesh Yadav.
Though Congress tried to corner ruling BJP by targeting Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in one of the biggest admission-cum-recruitment scam, popularly known as 'VYAPAM,' the move so far has failed to pay any political dividend to the Opposition party even in the civic elections that were held after the scam was exposed in 2013.

Taking no chances, Congress relied on its former Minister Subhash Sojatia, a close ally of Congress General Secretary and ex-Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, to take on the BJP.
Earlier, Sojatia won the polls from this seat four times - 1985, 1993, 1998 and 2008.
The victory in 2008 was crucial as Congress won the seat despite Chouhan proving his political mettle for the first time after becoming Chief Minister in 2005.

"Our position is strong in this bypoll and we are confident of winning this election as people of the state are totally fed up with the ruling BJP. The change of power in the state will begin from Garoth," Madhya Pradesh Pradesh Congress Committee chief Arun Yadav told PTI.

"Farmers were not being paid compensation in Mandsaur district for long for damage to their soybean and orange crops because of unseasonal rains. Chouhan is just shedding crocodile tears for them," he alleged.
On the other hand, BJP which has lost the Bahoriband bypoll to Congress despite fielding Pranav Pandey, son of sitting MLA Prabhat Pandey whose death necessitated the by- election in August 2014 is not taking any chances this time.
The seat was won by Congress' Saurabh Singh by a margin of nearly 8,000 votes as the party was then unable to cash on the sympathy votes.
The BJP has decided to field a kisan leader and RSS functionary, Chander Singh Sisodia by denying a ticket to the wife of former MLA, Rajesh Yadav.