Pitted mainly against former MP Dalpat Singh Paraste of BJP and Juglal Kol of BSP among seven others, the three-time Rajya Sabha member, Jogi, a former IAS officer, is trying to wrest this seat from BJP in his maiden contest here.

Both Congress and BJP have changed their nominees this time, triggering unrest among a section of their local party cadres.

While Jogi was given ticket overlooking the aspirations of Madhya Pradesh Congress working president Dalbir Singh, Paraste was preferred to the member of the 12th Lok Sabha from here Gyan Singh despite his recent entry into the BJP from Janata Dal.

Having switched over to Shahdol from the Raigarh constituency in the Chhatisgarh region where he had won by just 4000 votes in 1998, Jogi is braving twin problems-the label of`outsider' given by BJP and that of `non-tribal' given by the supporters of Dalbir who had won from here in 1991 but lost in 1996 and 1998 elections.

An undeterred Jogi, drawing strength from the fact tha this party holds six out of eight Assembly seats here, is confident as he reminds the electorate of development work done by him as a collector with a pinch of wit, humour and taunt.

Paraste, however, banks mainly on the image of prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to sway the over 12 lakh voters, including 5,84,000 women, in the constituency.

BSP's Juglal, who has been renominated from Shahdol, has added an interesting angle to the contest which may prove crucial in the final outcome if the 1.70 lakh votes polled by him in 1998 are any indication.

Political observers say that Juglal as a member of Kol tribe which has massive presence in the constituency is set to cut into Congress votes since the tribe is considered to be a traditional vote bank of the latter.

Samajwadi Party has fielded a lesserknown Lalaram, while there are four Independents.

Baiga, Goud and Kol tribes who make about 50 per cent of the voters in the constituency are set to play a decisive role in the final results as in the last elections where both the Congress and BJP nominees belonged to a sensitive gaud tribe.

The constituency also has about 2.5 lakh backward, one lakh minorities and scheduled castes and 50,000 Brahmins. The Baiga and Kol votes are likely to be divided further as two of the Independents belong to these tribes.