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With the second-time MP and former Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar — who won the Morena seat in 2009 and 2018 — now being the state’s Vidhan Sabha speaker, BJP has fielded Shiv Mangal Tomar, who is being largely seen as the former Union minister’s shadow candidate to maintain his clout in the region’s politics.“Narendra Singh Tomar and Dada Gajraj Singh Sikarwar are considered two major Kshatriya politicians in Morena. It is an open secret in local BJP circles that Tomar was instrumental in Dada’s elder son Satish’s defeat in 2018 assembly polls in Gwalior-East, when Satish contested as BJP candidate. Tomar’s hand is also alleged in the defeats of other BJP leaders, including former Madhya Pradesh ministers Jaibhan Singh Pavaiya and Anoop Mishra in Gwalior district in 2013 and 2018 assembly polls. With a major section of BJP in Gwalior-Chambal region, particularly in Morena, being averse to Tomar, the possibility of some BJP quarters internally backing the Congress candidate in the May 7 polls cannot be ruled out,” a BJP leader in Morena, who wished not to be named, told this newspaper.While the Congress is eyeing the seat it had last won in 1991 through a BJP family scion, the BJP too is working on a counter plan of banking on desertions from other parties.The list of major politicians from the region who have joined the BJP in this poll season include six-time MLA and former minister Ramniwas Rawat (a powerful OBC leader who missed out the Congress ticket despite having finished runners up from the seat in 2019 and 2009), Morena mayor Sharda Solanki, former Congress MLAs Rakesh Mawai and Ajab Singh Kushwah (all from Congress), besides BSP’s ex-Brahmin MLA Balveer Dandotiya, who lost to Narendra Singh Tomar in 2023 assembly polls.
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BJP, Congress bank on defectors in Morena
