Representative image.

| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Congress on Thursday (July 2, 2026) slammed the announcement of a byelection 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.The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced that bypolls in Datia will be held on July 30, along with one Assembly seat each in Bihar and Gujarat. While the last date to file nominations is July 13, the votes will be counted on August 3. Datia holds significance as Bharti won the seat in the 2023 M.P. Assembly elections after defeating BJP heavyweight and then Home Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Narottam Mishra, in a fiercely fought contest.Bharti’s legislative membership was, however, cancelled on April 2, a day after he was sentenced to three years in prison for cheating a co-operative bank by a special MP/MLA court in Delhi. He has challenged the verdict before the Delhi High Court and sought a stay, which is scheduled for hearing on July 8. Speaking to The Hindu, Bharti said that the byelection has been announced “in a rush” while accusing the ECI of “double standards”.Bharti highlighted that the Commission had deferred to hold byelection on Uttar Pradesh’s Milkipur seat in November 2024 due to a pending election petition by the BJP candidate who had lost during the 2022 Assembly polls. While the Milkipur Assembly seat had fallen vacant after the Samajwadi Party MLA Awadhesh Prasad won the Lok Sabha polls, the bypolls were only held in February, 2025, after the petition in the Allahabad High Court was withdrawn by the BJP leader. “This clearly shows the EC’s double standards. It had six months since the disqualification, and my case is currently pending. They should have waited for the High Court’s decision as they did in Milkipur’s case. Has the EC made an assumption that the courts will rule against me?” Bharti asked. He also raised doubts if a fair byelection will be held in Datia while alleging that the “BJP will manage other candidates here and will not let anybody win”.Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Umang Singhar highlighted the case of Bina MLA Nirmala Sapre, who had won on a Congress ticket and is currently facing disqualification proceedings before the M.P. High Court after she unofficially switched over to the BJP in 2024. Mr, Singhar had moved to the HC seeking her disqualification from the Assembly.Mr. Singhar said that while the Election Commission of India “wanted to hold polls in Datia in a hurry”, there has been no decision on Ms. Sapre’s case for nearly two years. “Datia is an important place. Rajendra Bharti defeated a big BJP leader in 2023. However, due to the conspiracy of the BJP and the Election Commission, his membership was cancelled. Now, the BJP wants to capture this seat by hastily conducting a byelection in Datia. We are fully confident that the people of Datia will once again express their trust in the Congress party,” he said while urging party workers to get ready for the polls. Cabinet Minister and Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya said that it was the ECI’s responsibility to hold the byelection on the seat. “Any Assembly or Lok Sabha seat could not have been left vacant without a representative for a long time,” he said addressing reporters in Bhopal, while adding that a decision on the candidature was yet to be taken.Even after having lost his seat and ministerial berth, Mr. Mishra continues to hold significant influence in Datia as well as in the State politics, and is also considered close to the RSS and BJP leadership. Published - July 02, 2026 07:20 pm IST