In March, the Congress had to let go of its 15-month-old government and BJP poster boy, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, regained power after a fortnight of high-voltage political drama. But more action is in store as the state gears up for bypolls on 24 assembly seats amid altered political equations.
With 16 of the 24 vacant assembly seats, including those 22 where Congress MLAs switched over to the BJP, falling in Gwalior-Chambal region, an area from where the BJP stalwarts hail, the polls will be observed keenly.
Two assembly seats Jaura in Morena and Aagr had fallen vacant after demise of Congress and BJP lawmakers, respectively.
After decades, the Congress will take an electoral plunge in this region without the Scindias by its side. Jyotiraditya Scindia’s father, Madhav Rao, had also quit the Congress during PV Narasimha Rao government but no assembly polls had taken place around that time.
Moreover, divided in camps, Gwalior-Chambal region then was a no-entry zone for other senior leaders, including Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh, which is not the case this time and the party seniors are consolidating their camps in the region.
Former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia will have his first test of strength after switching over to the saffron party in March this year and will have the mantle of helping party win maximum seats in his home turf.
Senior BJP leaders, including Narendra Singh Tomar, Narottam Mishra, Anup Mishra, Prabhat Jha, Jyotiraditya’s aunt Yashodhara Raje Scindia and Jaibhan Singh Paviaya, also hail from the same region and it will be interesting to see how the BJP high command finds harmony among these bigwigs.
Among them, Jha and Paviaya had been the most vocal against the fort and had been quiet since Scindia switched over. However, a senior journalist from the region claimed that most BJP senior leaders in the Gwlaior-Chambal region don’t have a mass appeal and thrive on party structure, and because of this, the party high command’s directives in favour of Scindia must be sufficient to keep them in check.
The political workers who, till now, fought against the fort for decades, now find rubbing shoulders with their adversaries who joined in recently, said a political analyst of the region.
For Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the fate lies solely on the outcome of the bypolls. Scindia has more on stake as he needs to prove his political mettle at his home turf and also keep in mind the interests of his followers who tailed him to BJP.
Sources also claimed that Scindia had been exerting pressure on the party leadership to accommodate most of his followers when tickets are distributed for bypolls. If at all the BJP obliges him, the decision comes with an added risk of angering own dedicated cadre which is being seen in the Haatpiplya seat.
Former Congressman Manoj Chaduhary had defeated BJP’s Deepak Joshi, and after Chaudhary entered the BJP during mass exodus in March, Joshi had been singing a rebellious tune.
The Congress, busy zeroing in on the candidates for bypolls, is pitted against an internal dissent. PCC chief Kamal Nath is pitching for Chaudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi for a ticket and Prem Chand Guddu from Sanwer against who have both deserted the party in the past and many BJP dissenters but has faced internal opposition. Senior leaders like Ajay Singh and Dr Govind Singh have opposed the move of counting on those who ditched the party in the past.
Sources claim that Nath, too, is eyeing BJP dissenters a ploy used by opposition to topple his government in March.
Recently, the Congress party had altered party officebearers in districts where Scindia enjoyed the clout earlier.
However, with the BSP also announcing to contest all the 24 bypolls, this a triangular contest has become even more interesting as the region had seen a massive SC/ST rebellion over alterations in SC/ST act couple of years ago, and the issue of reservation was seen as one reason Congress had a sweeping success in 2018 — winning 26 of the total 34 seats.
For obvious reasons, the BJP state unit led by CM Chouhan and state head VD Sharma has been busy devising the strategy for upcoming bypolls. Recently, senior leaders had video conferencing with the district heads and other office bearers in the state and CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said to have discussions with ticket aspirants from Gwalior-Chambal region through video conferencing.
Sources claim that most of Scindia supporters are sure of getting tickets in bypolls.
Amid the coronavirus scare, BJP party high command has instructed state unit to run relief and welfare measures so that hardships caused to labourers don’t impact the polls. Chouhan has also been laying emphasis on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) works to benefit the migrant labourers who returned to the state after being rendered jobless in other states.
Meanwhile, the Congress is back to farm loan waivers to gain public confidence yet again and state leaders are stressing heavily on their loan waiver works to win back farmers’ trust. The Opposition is also underlining spiralled power bills in BJP rule to underline the power subsidies the Congress government was offering on electricity bills.
The BJP was already accusing Congress government of fooling farmers with loan waiver certificates and even urged peasants to lodge FIRs against the Congress party.
Former Agriculture minister Sachin Yadav recently asked the Shivraj Chauhan government if it wishes to discontinue the Jai Kisan loan waiver scheme. Alleging that the government was handing massive power bills to farmers, Yadav claimed loan recovery was on in the state despite the chief minister ordering to keep it suspended till may 31.
By roping in poll strategist Prashant Kishor, the Congress has made it clear that bypolls are no less important than the 2018 assembly polls where Kishor had played key role in devising the winning strategy.
With a six-month mandatory period, the bypolls are required to be held by September in MP.
Comments
0 comment