For the upcoming by-election for the Datia Assembly seat in the State, Central Election Committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has approved Ashutosh Tiwari as its candidate. His name was announced in an official list released by the BJP on Friday. A look at past elections suggest with an electorate of approximately 2.40 lakh, political parties are focusing on specific caste groups whose votes could alter the election’s outcome. Notably, the contest does not appear limited to just the BJP and Congress this time; the entry of the Azad Samaj Party has given a twist to the election. In the 2023 Assembly elections, the then Home Minister Dr Narottam Mishra faced defeat. Political analysts attribute this largely to a disruption in the BJP’s traditional social equations.

 

The Azad Samaj Party is attempting to make inroads into this specific vote bank. For Datia seat, polling will be held on July 30, and the votes will be counted on August 3. On July 2, main opposition party Congress slammed the announcement of a by-election in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia Assembly constituency, which had fallen vacant after the disqualification of Congress’s Rajendra Bharti in April following his conviction in a fraud case. Within the party discussions are in progress over the selection of candidate. It is learnt that Arjun Bharti (son of disqualified former MLA Rajendra Bharti) is also in the list. With this election is going to be high stake battle here.