In a surprising turn of events, the electoral landscape of Madhya Pradesh's Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency witnessed a twist with the cancellation of Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Meera Yadav's nomination on Friday.
The decision to cancel Yadav's nomination was made by Panna district electoral officer Suresh Mishra, who cited various reasons, including the absence of a signature on a crucial page of the nomination papers.
Former MLA Meera Yadav had officially filed her nomination papers just a day prior to the cancellation.
Initially, the SP had nominated Manoj Yadav as their candidate for the Khajuraho seat, pitting him against the Madhya Pradesh BJP president and incumbent MP VD Sharma. However, Meera Yadav was later chosen to replace him.
Meera Yadav, hailing from Jhansi and married to a local SP leader in Khajuraho, began her political journey in Madhya Pradesh with the SP in Uttar Pradesh. She made her mark by being elected as an SP candidate to the state Assembly in 2008.
Interestingly, out of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has relinquished one — Khajuraho — for its INDIA bloc partner, the Samajwadi Party.
Khajuraho, a constituency comprising eight assembly segments spread across three districts — Chandla (SC), Rajnagar, Pawai, Gunnaor (SC), Panna, Vijayraghavgarh, Murwara, and Bahoriband — in the Bundelkhand region, was once considered a Congress stronghold.
Vidyavati Chaturvedi, a veteran Congress leader, clinched victory twice in the Khajuraho constituency (in 1980 and 1984), while her son and former Rajya Sabha MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi served as the last Congress MP from the seat in 1999.
Uma Bharti, a prominent BJP leader and former MP CM, also represented the Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat on four occasions from 1989 to 1998. Since 2004, the BJP has maintained a stronghold in Khajuraho, remaining undefeated in consecutive elections.
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