Damoh win: Cong’s acquire comes at turncoat’s loss

In 2018, Rahul Singh Lodhi — then with the Congress — wrested the Damoh Assembly seat from senior BJP chief Jayant Malaiya with a skinny victory margin. On Sunday, Lodhi misplaced the seat in a bypoll — necessitated by his defection to BJP — to Congress’s Ajay Tandon.
Lodhi’s defeat comes as a setback for the ruling BJP — CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and not less than 13 ministers of the social gathering have been a part of the marketing campaign for the Damoh seat.
Tandon’s victory was anticipated in political circles, as individuals have been agitated over having to forged their votes in the course of the pandemic owing to Lodhi’s defection.
District Congress Committee president Manu Mishra mentioned, “Many voters, who had voted for Rahul Singh Lodhi to see a change after Jayant Malaiya ruling for six terms were sorely disappointed with Lodhi who remained largely unapproachable. And then he defected to the BJP causing the bypolls in the midst of a second wave.”
Lodhi misplaced by 17,097 votes and received 40.34 per cent of the votes. He blamed Malaiya saying the previous minister ensured that the MLA didn’t win. However, Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Monday referred to as the defeat a loss due to their “own people” and urged the Congress to not have fun too quickly.
Congress state president Kamal Nath pointed to the outcome as a sign of the occasions to come back for the BJP. “When I held my road show, it was clear to me in the way people came and met me and showed the party’s symbol. It is the victory of Congress workers who rode against the politics of money power played by the BJP and had put more energy into the Congress party,” he instructed The Indian Express.