MP polls: Rival parties locked in fierce freebie-filled fight to win heart’ of India

Bhopal, Oct 9 (PTI) A fierce competition among parties to offer freebies and guarantees, a scramble for tribal, OBC, women votes and a touch of Hindutva all have combined to make the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls a high-stakes battle with main rivals BJP and the Congress pulling out all the stops to gain power.

After a close contest in 2018, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress are marshalling all resources at their disposal to notch a clear majority in the 230-member House to avoid post-result complications.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is on a freebies announcing spree, mostly targeting women, and playing temples-centric Hindutva card, while state Congress president Kamal Nath is countering his rival’s doles with his own pre-poll guarantees and wooing OBC voters.

With a long history of bipolar politics, dominated by the Congress and the BJP, Madhya Pradesh — located in the geographic heart of India — will also see the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) trying to make its presence felt in the state this time around.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is trying to regain its lost voter base in the state, where it had committed Dalit electors and pockets of influence for decades.

At a time when four-term BJP chief minister Chouhan (64) and his astute rival Nath (76) are fighting the toughest electoral battle of their political careers, Delhi CM and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal is going all out to see that his outfit puts up a convincing show and wins a good number of seats.

Kejriwal along with Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann has visited MP and addressed four rallies since March and announced plenty of freebies like free education, medical care and electricity to win over voters and take on the well entrenched parties like the BJP and the Congress.

The BJP is pinning hopes on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma to get voters on their side with “MP Ke Man Mein Modi” slogan and theme song of electioneering focused on him. Modi has addressed nine rallies in seven months.

The saffron outfit is avoiding projecting Chouhan as its chief ministerial candidate in an attempt to blunt anti-incumbency against him.

But this has not dampened the spirit of Chouhan, the saffron party’s longest-serving chief minister and a leader from LK Advani’s era who is still active in Modi’s BJP.

Undaunted by central leadership’s lack of open support for him, Chouhan, known for his caring mama’ (maternal uncle) image, has been announcing a slew of sops to woo voters, especially women.

He has already hiked the financial aid under the `Ladli Behna Yojana’ from Rs 1,000 a month to Rs 1,250 and then to Rs 1,500 (proposed) for 1.32 crore women in the state.

The state government has earmarked a whopping Rs 16,000 crore for the scheme targeted at women from financially weaker sections. It has promised to raise the financial aid to Rs 3,000 per month gradually.

Chouhan has reached out to more than half of the 2.6 crore women voters, who outnumber their male peers in at least 18 assembly seats, as per an estimate.

The CM launched the Ladli Behna Yojana barely two days after Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra kick started her party’s campaign with a rally in Jabalpur on June 12 where she announced Rs 1,500 per month to eligible women under the ‘Nari Samman Nidhi’ if her party is voted to power.

She also announced 100 units free electricity to every household and LPG cylinders at Rs 500 each.

Priyanka Gandhi said the old pension scheme would be brought back for MP government employees if the Congress came to power.

Months after Priyanka Gandhi’s promise, Chouhan also announced to provide a cooking gas cylinder at Rs 500.

Besides, the CM is spending more than Rs 3,000 crore on building, rebuilding or sprucing up temples, including the Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain, and museums attached to them.

On September 21, Chouhan unveiled a 108 feet tall statue of Hindu saint Adi Shankaracharya at Omkareshwar in Khandwa district.

For the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi and her brother Rahul Gandhi are leading the campaign. Priyanka Gandhi, who opened the Congress campaign in June, has addressed three rallies since then.

Priyanka Gandhi started her visit by worshipping the Narmada river in Jabalpur amid chants of Jai Narmada’ and Jai Bajrang Bali’. The day she sounded the poll bugle, the replica of Lord Hanuman’s mace dotted busy road crossings in Jabalpur city.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, according to party insiders, will focus on 35 seats reserved for SC candidates. Kharge addressed a rally in Sagar district in August.

Besides PM Modi, other top BJP leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, a key poll strategist, and party president JP Nadda are also focusing on the state.

In the Congress camp, party veteran Digvijaya Singh has already thrown his weight behind Kamal Nath and backed him as the CM face.

Last time around, Nath proved his mettle by leading the Congress to power in 2018 and then becoming the CM though he could not complete his term due to a rebellion by MLAs supporting now Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Nath has been aggressively wooing the OBCs, who account for 45 per cent of MP’s population. During his 15-month-long stint as CM, he raised the quota for the OBCs from 14 per cent to 27 per cent.

Although the court overturned the decision citing 50 per cent cap on reservation, the political move made it clear the Congress is banking heavily on the OBCs.

Knowing the OBCs were overwhelmingly with the BJP in the last three assembly polls, Nath is nurturing the formidable vote bank in the current elections.

Apart from promising to restore 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs, the Congress has assured a caste-based census in MP and support for OBC quota within the Women’s Reservation Bill.

Nath and his party are also taking on the BJP over corruption. The opposition party has been raising slogans like “50 per cent commission ki sarkar” to allege massive graft under the BJP rule.

To counter BJP’s Hindutva, Nath organised mega religious events in his home turf Chhindwara where Hindu preachers Dhirendra Shastri and Pradeep Mishra delivered sermons to tens of thousands of devotees.

The former Union minister also projected himself as an ardent devotee of Lord Hanuman and reminded people he had built a 102-feet- tall idol of the Hindu god in Chhindwara.

The BJP has stolen a march on the Congress by declaring 79 candidates so far. The saffron party has fielded three Union ministers – Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste — and four other Lok Sabha MPs besides general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.

Tomar, Patel and Vijayvargiya, according to political observers, nurse the dream of becoming CM. Besides them, MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra is also seen as a CM aspirant.

According to Congress leaders, the party has received more than 4,000 applications for the 230 assembly seats, making selection of candidates a cumbersome and tricky affair.

The Congress has launched Jan Aakrosh Yatras’ (public outrage marches) to cash in on what it sees as voter resentment against the BJP.

The BJP has already completed its Jan Ashirwad Yatras’ (marches to seek people’s blessings) and come up with the slogan abki bar 150 par’ (victory in more than 150 seats this time).

In the November 2018 polls, the Congress had won 114 seats, while the BJP finished second with 109.