A constituency that never sent a lady to the Lok Sabha

Mandla, MP: Turning the pages of tribal-dominated and agriculture-dependent Mandla parliamentary constituency’s electoral history reveals it to be a former Congress citadel that has interestingly never sent a female representative to the House of the People.

Erstwhile central minister Faggan Singh Kulaste (Bharatiya Janata Party) is the outgoing MP and it so happened that all five times the saffron camp emerged victorious here, he was the candidate and enjoyed an uninterrupted stint from 1996 to 2009 when Mr Basori Singh Masram (Cong) humbled him with the scorecard reading 3,91,133 Congress and 3,26,080 BJP. However, in 2014 Mr Kulaste triumphed yet again by vanquishing Mr Omkar Singh (Cong) owing to the Modi wave. The votes garnered were 5,85,720 BJP and 4,75,521 Congress.

Flashback to the country’s first general election, Mr Mangru Ganu Uikey (Cong) prevailed and his winning streak continued unbroken for the next four polls as well. The Congress tasted defeat for the first time in 1977 when the Janata Party’s Shyam Lal Dhurve finished first. There was a comeback by the Congress three years later and it remained entrenched till 1996.

The constituency comprises the Assembly segments Shahpura, Dindori, Bichhiya, Niwas, Mandla, Keolari, Lakhanadon and Gotegaon. Six are Congress-controlled and the remainder in saffron hands. Scheduled Tribes make up a significant percentage of this district’s population. (UNI)