The heavy campaigning for the November 17 election for Madhya Pradesh’s 230 Assembly seats came to an end on Wednesday with Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra terming Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia a “traitor” for switching over to the BJP and bringing down the 15-month Congress government in the State.
Addressing a poll rally in Datia, Ms. Vadra said, “He [Mr. Scindia] fell short in height but his arrogance waah bhayi waah [wow].”
She also claimed that when she was working with Mr. Scindia (when he was in the Congress) in Uttar Pradesh, several party volunteers had complained to her that he did not do their works as they did not address him as “Maharaj”.
“But he has followed the tradition of his family very well. Many people have betrayed but he betrayed the people of Gwalior-Chambal [the region of Mr. Scindia’s influence]. He stabbed you in the back and brought down an established government. It was your government,” Ms. Vadra said.
The Congress had emerged as the single largest party in 2018 with 114 seats, two short of the majority mark, and had formed a government with the support of independent and smaller party MLAs. The party had chosen Kamal Nath as the Chief Minister. Mr. Scindia, who was also an aspirant for the top post, had walked out of the Congress in March 2020 along with 22 MLAs, causing the collapse of the government and a return of the BJP government led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
This time, with the BJP, Mr. Scindia actively campaigned across the State, especially in the Gwalior-Chambal region, to prove his worth and justify his decision of switching parties. The party has also fielded 18 of Scindia loyalists in the poll fray.
Slams Congress
Mr. Scindia, in his numerous rallies, has trained his guns at the Congress on various fronts and has asked the pubic if he made the right decision by bringing down the government.
Mr. Scindia also responded to Ms. Vadra’s charges by calling her a “part-time politician”.
In a post on social media platform X, Mr. Scindia said, “I do not expect her to have the ability to understand the difference between these two traditions — the sons of which family sacrificed their lives to protect Mother India from the Afghans to the Mughals and the British? And who protected India from China? Forget about protecting, the Indian land itself was given to them as a gift?”
“The Scindia family has repeatedly changed the rule of corrupt and promise-breaking people, and the people of Madhya Pradesh are going to clean you again,” he wrote.
Ms. Vadra also took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that he keeps “crying” like actor Salman Khan’s character in movie ‘Tere Naam’ and that a movie on the Prime Minister titled ‘Mere Naam’ should be made.
“He carries a list of how many people have abused him,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Modi, who concluded his campaigning in the State with three rallies and a roadshow on Tuesday, appealed to the voters of Madhya Pradesh to choose the BJP to make Madhya Pradesh a developed State.
Mr. Modi specifically targeted the women and youth voters of Madhya Pradesh in his post. While he said women empowerment was the BJP’s priority, the Prime Minister also said that the new generation is looking at the next 25 years of India and their own 25 years together.
“In the rallies, I also saw how angry the people of Madhya Pradesh are with the dynastic politics and negativity of the Congress. Congress has no vision, no road map for the development of Madhya Pradesh,” he wrote.
Complaint from Cong.
In another development, acting on a complaint from the Congress, the Election Commission directed the State Election Commission to ensure that no campaigning took place beyond 6 p.m. when the silent period begins.
The Congress had lodged a complaint with the State EC against an address of Mr. Chouhan for the “brothers and sisters” of Madhya Pradesh, scheduled at 5.30 p.m. The Opposition party had alleged violation of poll code as a BJP advertisement about the address did not mention a time limit for it.
The State has seen aggressive campaigning since October 9, when the EC announced polls in the State, with all top leaders from the BJP and the Congress holding a number of rallies and roadshows.
The BJP had deployed Mr. Modi, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, several State leaders like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, among others.
The BJP, in a surprising move, has also fielded three Union Ministers — Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste, four MPs, and one national general secretary — Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Unlike previous polls, the BJP did not declare Mr. Chouhan, the State’s longest serving Chief Minister, its chief ministerial candidate. The party instead decided to go to the electorate with the face of Mr. Modi, which was visible from its campaign posters and main slogan “M.P. Ke Mann Mein Modi, Modi Ke Mann Mein M.P.”
While the BJP called the two moves part of its “collective leadership” strategy, speculations in the State have been rife that the saffron party might be looking at a change of face in Madhya Pradesh and that the three Union Ministers, Mr. Vijayavargiya and Mr. Scindia are contenders for the top post if the BJP retains power.
However, Mr. Chouhan, who made headlines with his emotional statements before he was fielded from his traditional Budhni seat, led the BJP’s campaign from the front and visited the corners of the State, with even holding 10-12 rallies in a day.
Mr. Chouhan’s welfare schemes like the Ladli Behna and Ladli Lakshmi continue to remain popular across the State, forcing party leaders like Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah to highlight them from the stage.
Mr. Tomar, considered a top contender for the Chief Minister post, found himself in some trouble towards the end of campaigning, after two videos allegedly showing his son discussing transactions worth hundreds of crores of rupees went viral.
The Congress, on the other hand, has gone into the polls with Mr. Kamal Nath as its face, which was again visible in party’s campaign posters that showed his face prominently with the party’s promises.
While the BJP deployed an army of its leaders from across the country, the Congress’s campaigning remained largely local with only a few central leaders like Ms. Vadra, Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge holding multiple rallies in the last phase of campaigning.
Going into the elections, the Congress had announced that it will conduct a caste-based population survey if voted to power in the State, in an attempt to woo the 50% OBCs.
Unlike previous polls, the Congress also largely succeeded in presenting a united front in the State. However, the party had to face a setback in the wake of Mr. Nath’s comment “tear (former CM) Digvijaya Singh’s clothes” to a group of party workers upset over denial of ticket to a leader. Mr. Nath and Mr. Singh had to issue explanations saying that their relationship was based on laughter and respect.
The two parties will also be wary of several rebels in several seats, who were denied tickets and later entered the poll fray as independents or from parties like the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party among others.
The BJP and the Congress, in their manifestos, have announced a number of populist schemes. The Congress has promised ₹1,500 a month to women, ₹25 lakh health insurance cover and accident insurance up to ₹10 lakh for all families, 27% reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in government jobs, farm loan waiver up to ₹2 lakh and implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), and a hike in wheat and rice MSP to ₹2,600 and ₹2,500 per quintal, respectively.
The BJP has promised to hike the MSP wheat to ₹2,700 per quintal and that of paddy to ₹3,100 per quintal, concrete houses to more than 1.30 crore beneficiaries of Ladli Behna Yojana. The party has also announced to build IIT and AIIMS-like institutes in the State.
The SP, the BSP, the Aam Aadmi Party, and the Gondwana Ganatanra Party have also fielded candidates in several seats across the State and are expected to disturb the equations of the BJP and the Congress in several places.
The State will go to polls on Friday with 2,533 candidates, including 252 women, in the fray and their fate will be decided by more than 5.60 crore voters out of which over 2.72 crore are women.
