Anti-incumbency likely to make 6-term MP Kulaste's battle to retain Mandla harder: Analysts
Anti-incumbency might make this Lok Sabha poll battle from Mandla a bit tough for Union minister and six-term MP Faggan Singh Kulaste, who faced defeat in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, political analysts claim. While the BJP and analysts feel the 'Modi factor' would work in favour of Kulaste, the Congress claimed he has not worked for the welfare of tribals.
Senior BJP leader Kulaste, the sitting MP from Mandla (ST-reserved) in the state's Mahakoshal region, is pitted against Congress' Dindori MLA Omkar Singh Markam.
The Mandla Lok Sabha seat, where polling will be held on Friday, includes eight assembly segments — six reserved for the Scheduled Tribes and one for the Scheduled Caste candidates.
In the 2023 state polls, the Congress won five of these segments, though its collective victory margin was only 16,000 votes.
Kulaste won the 2019 Lok Sabha election by a margin of around 98,000 votes.
He is facing Markam as his poll rival for the second time.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Kulaste defeated Markam by a margin of 1.10 lakh votes.
The BJP fielded Kulaste from Niwas seat in the 2023 assembly polls when Congress' Chainsingh Warkade defeated him by more than 9,700 votes.
The Union minister's brother, Rampyare Kulaste, was defeated in the Mandla assembly seat by Congress in 2018.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Congress' Basori Singh Masram defeated Faggan Singh Kulaste from Mandla by around 65,000 votes.
Talking to PTI, former editor of a Hindi daily in Jabalpur, Ravindra Dubey, claimed there
