BJP leaves no breathing room for Congress in Madhya Pradesh

Reacting to the party’s defeat, Congress President Jitu Patwari told The Indian Express, “It was natural that we would find it difficult to give a strong challenge (to the BJP). We are working towards building our organisation.”

The BJP while focusing on strengthening its hold over tribal seats with the help of its welfare schemes also didn’t shy away from playing the identity politics card, celebrating tribal icons and renaming important infrastructure and universities after them.

The massive beneficiary outreach programmes helped the BJP win the tribal-dominated seats such as Shahdol, Mandla, Balaghat, Chhindwara and Betul by the margins of over 1 lakh votes.

Chhindwara, no more Congress bastion

One of the main seats where the Congress will feel the pinch of defeat is Chhindwara from where party veteran Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath lost to BJP’s Bunty Vivek Sahu by a margin of 1,13,618 votes.

Most of Nath’s closest allies had deserted him on the eve of the elections “frustrated with Nakul’s handling of the campaign,” which are said to be among the factors behind the loss, party sources said. Nakul Nath’s loss in Chhindwara, a seat dominated by the family since 1980 threatens to further damage Kamal Nath’s political career after his recent humiliating loss in the assembly elections.

Reacting to the development, senior Chhindwara BJP leader Alkesh Lamba said, “Nakul Nath spent 5 years traveling abroad while Sahu worked on the ground. His stature grew when he went against Kamal Nath and even though he lost, he was the best man to take on Nakul Nath. In the end, decades of work helped Sahu break this stronghold.”

In the north of the state, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia won back his family seat of Guna. In 2019, Scindia had lost to his former loyalist and the BJP candidate KP Yadav, by a margin of 1, 25,549 votes. This set off a series of events which resulted in the royal scion eventually leaving the Congress and defecting to the BJP with 22 MLAs, bringing down the Kamal Nath-led Congress. With Scindia winning by a margin of 5,40,929 votes and also helping the party hold on its own in the assembly elections in the politically crucial Gwalior-Chambal region, Scindia’s loyalists expect him to further rise in the BJP ranks.

Meanwhile, the principal opponent of the Gwalior royal family– the Raghogarh royal family and its royal scion, Digvijaya Singh (77) lost his last election. Singh contested in this election on an emotional platform pegging this as his last one. Now, his son and Raghogarh MLA Jaivardhan Singh is expected to take over the reins as the state politics may have seen the last of Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh era.

In the central regions of the state, former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan won by a margin of over 8 lakh votes from his home base in Vidisha. Singh, the longest serving CM of the state, was promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he wanted to take Chouhan with him to Delhi. With the BJP now depending on its allies, all eyes will be on Delhi to see how Chouhan will be accommodated.

With the central leadership camping in the state, the BJP had not even allowed the Congress to rest. PM Modi held eight campaign meetings and two roadshows, Union Home minister Amit Shah held four public meetings, one roadshow, one cluster meeting, one booth-level conference and one intellectual conference, all aimed at connecting with the booth level workers. Shah’s meeting with the booth level workers is said to have played an important role in winning all 29 seats.

Even the newly inducted Chief Minister Mohan Yadav held 180 or more public meetings and 58 roadshows in the state. Additionally, CM Yadav “taking action against government officers, police officials and revenue officers over complaints by the common public had helped stem the feeling of anger against the government,” said a senior BJP leader.