The Lok Sabha battle in Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh has literally homed in on the Munjare household where the Congress MLA wife has been asked by her BSP candidate husband to stay away till polling day on April 19.
Balaghat MLA Anubha Munjare told PTI her husband Kankar Munjare had asked her to stay apart due to difference in ideologies, while the latter said people would believe there was some "match-fixing" involved if they stayed under one roof.
"We had stayed together during the Assembly polls last year when I was Congress candidate from Balaghat and he was Gondwana Gantantra Party candidate from Paraswada in the district. I fail to understand why he wants us to stay apart now," Anubha Munjare said.
"We have been married for 33 years and have lived happily along with our son. There are families that live together despite members being part of different political ideologies. Look at the Scindias of Gwalior," said Anubha Munjare, who defeated BJP heavyweight Gaurishankar Bisen in the 2023 state polls.
Anubha Munjare said she would give full support to the Congress' Balaghat Lok Sabha candidate Samrat Saraswat but asserted she would not badmouth her husband during the campaign.
The BJP must be defeated in Balaghat under any circumstance, she asserted.
"I told my wife to live separately till April 19 or I will leave the house. Two people pursuing different ideologies cannot stay in the same house. If we do so people will think some sort of poll match fixing is going on," Kankar Munjare told PTI.
The BSP candidate claimed MP Congress chief Jitu Patwari, while addressing a gathering, had insisted that he be defeated.