Regional parties not favoured in this national party stronghold

Bidar : The voters of Bidar Lok Sabha constituency have been supporting the candidates of Congress and BJP parties since the beginning. As voters have been leaning towards these two parties, regional parties have not won a single Lok Sabha election so far.

BJP has fielded Bhagwanth Khuba while Congress has replaced Eshwar Khandre with his son Sagar. Bidar Lok Sabha constituency has witnessed 18 elections including one by-election. Congress has won the most number of times in this. The Congress party has won a total of 11 elections, including one by-election. Now, BJP has won 7 times. It is special that former BJP MP late Ramachandra Veerappa won five times from the BJP party itself. In 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004, Ramchandra Veerappa contested from BJP and entered the Lok Sabha. Before this, Ramachandra was elected from the Congress party in 1962 and 1967. He won a total of 7 times. In 2004, he died of age-related diseases while still an MP.

Narsinga Rao Suryavanshi won four times from Congress. Suryavanshi is the second-most elected to the Lok Sabha from Bidar constituency after Ramachandra Veerappa. Suryavanshi had won the general elections in 1980, 1984, 1989 and by-elections in 2004. Congress won the general elections from 1952 to 1989 consecutively. Even though the candidates changed, the voters of the constituency did not give up on the Congress party.

Shaukat Ullah Ansari won the first general election in 1952 and Mahadevappa Yashwantrao won the second general election in 1957. Further, after Ramachandra Veerappa, Narasingarao Suryavanshi, Sankaradeva Balajirao and sitting MP Bhagwant Khuba have won the most number of times. Shankardeva Balajirao had won twice in a row in 1971 and 1977.

Also, BJP's Bhagwant Khuba won the 2014 and 2019 elections. This time, he has re-entered the fray with the hope of a 'hat-trick' win. Former Chief Minister Late N Dharmasingh had a bittersweet experience in the Bidar Lok Sabha constituency.

In the first election he faced in 2009, he won from the Bidar Lok Sabha constituency and became an MP. But for the second time in the 2014 elections, he was defeated in the wave of Narendra Modi. He lost against the then new face of BJP Bhagwant Khuba.