It was 33 years ago when Pushpa Devi of the erstwhile Gond tribal royal family of Sarangarh in Chhattisgarh was elected to the Lok Sabha from Raigarh constituency on a Congress ticket and this time, the party has fielded her sister Dr. Menka Devi Singh to reclaim the seat.
Dr. Menka is pitted against the BJP’s Radheshyam Rathiya in the Scheduled Tribe reserved seat, polling in which will take place in the third phase of elections on May 7.
The princely Sarangarh family has been associated with the Congress since pre-Independence times. Dr. Menka's father Raja Nareschandra Singh had served as Minister in the Congress government in undivided Madhya Pradesh from 1952 to 1968. He was also the only tribal chief minister of undivided Madhya Pradesh.
