Elections 98

State:	Madhya Pradesh
Constituency:	Hoshangabad
Total Votes Polled:	746475
Winner: BJP	Sartaj Singh	387395
Runner Up: INC	Arjun Singh	318414
Margin: 68981 (18%)

Elections 96

State:	Madhya Pradesh
Constituency:	Hoshangabad
Total Votes Polled:	584096
Winner: BJP	Sartaj Singh	269084
Runner Up: INC	Rameshwar Neekhra	216557
Margin: 52527 (9.29%)

The celebrated Hari V Kamath contested the first two elections and lost to the Congress. In 1962 he won the seat for the Praja Socialist Party, and lost the next two rounds. Thanks to the Janata wave, he bounced back in 1977 before fading away. Rameshwar Neekhra won the seat for the Congress in 1980 and 1984, and in 1989 lost to the BJP's Sartaj Singh. The last three elections have seen a face-off between the two, Singh -- a minister in the Vajpayee government -- winning every time.