Datia By-election 2026: Narottam Mishra’s name finalized; Congress entangled among contenders
The process of filing nominations for the Datia by-election 2026 has begun. On one hand, the BJP has all but decided to field its stalwart leader, Dr. Narottam Mishra, from the Datia assembly seat for the fifth consecutive time—with only the formal announcement pending, and no other major name emerging within the party for the ticket—while the Congress remains caught in a dilemma over the names of Shobha Bharti, Ghanshyam Singh, and Avadhesh Nayak.
The incumbent Congress MLA, Rajendra Bharti, is currently camping in Delhi. Even when senior leaders like Jitu Patwari and Digvijaya Singh visited Datia this week for a party workers' convention, Bharti did not make an appearance. It was Digvijaya who revealed, after speaking to him on the phone, that Bharti had undergone surgery and was receiving treatment in Delhi. Bharti wishes to secure the ticket for his wife Shobha Bharti to capitalize on a potential sympathy wave.
Another reported contender for the Congress ticket, Kunwar Ghanshyam Singh of the local royal family, has already expressed reluctance to leave his traditional seat of Seodha to contest from Datia.
Awadhesh Nayak—who joined the Congress from the BJP years ago—is certainly lobbying vigorously for the ticket, yet he has pledged that if the party chooses someone else, he will work wholeheartedly to ensure their victory.
Meanwhile, although the BJP has not yet officially announced its candidate, Narottam has launched a spirited campaign, treating his nomination as a certainty. With great humility, he is appearing before the public to seek their support. He holds no grievances against the people regarding his previous defeat.
As Narottam puts it: the people of Datia elected him MLA three times in a row; so what if they defeated him once? Dismissing the support base of his rival, the Bharti family, he philosophically remarks that it wasn't Rajendra Bharti who won last time, but rather he himself who lost!