In Madhya Pradesh region at heart of 2018 caste violence, as parties woo Dalits, upper castes simmer

A former Congress leader, Balbir Dandotiya is contesting on a BSP ticket. Even then, says Dandotiya, he is preferable to Morena sitting MP Narendra Singh Tomar, one of the Union ministers whom the BJP has translocated from the centre into the state fray.

In 2018, Morena had been at the heart of caste violence that erupted over apprehensions that a Supreme Court order may result in dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, resulting in seven deaths in Madhya Pradesh. In the Assembly elections that followed, the BJP paid a heavy price.

Party-wise distribution of votes in Assembly constituencies in Morena district from the previous election. (Express)

The Congress won 26 of the 34 constituencies in the Gwalior-Chambal region to which Morena belongs. It also won 17 of the 35 overall Scheduled Caste-reserved seats in the state, with the remaining going to the BJP. One of the 17 seats was Morena’s Ambah, whose MLA later shifted from the Congress to the BJP.

This time, the Congress can see some of its votes go to the BSP, SP and the Aam Aadmi Party, with all three in the fray. A few days ago, the Congress changed its candidate for the Sumawali seat in Morena, which it had won in 2018, following the possibility of rebellion after earlier lists.

The BJP, meanwhile, has been trying to aggressively woo back the Dalits, who constitute around 16% of the population, through several projects and schemes.

Ahead of the elections, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government announced a Rs 100-crore Ravidas memorial in the Bundelkhand region. Ravidas is a revered figure among the Dalit community.

The Congress has pitted its national president Mallikarjun Kharge, a Dalit, against this push. Earlier this year, Kharge launched the party’s Jan Aakrosh meetings against the Chouhan government.

Dandotiya, his friends, and some others from the community who stop by to join their discussion refer angrily to the BJP’s “emphasis on Dalits and OBCs” now. Gaurav Sharma complains about the dwindling job opportunities and the price rise, but sees “the sidelining of Brahmins” as the biggest issue. “All the Brahmins in the BJP are twiddling their thumbs. Kahan se santushti mile humein (How can we be content)?” he says.

Hari Om Sharma is the only one who says he will vote for the Congress, saying he wants “change”. He also feels the Congress got a rough deal due to the Jyotiraditya Scindia-led rebellion bringing its government down in 2020, after just 15 months in power.

In the Ambah (reserved) constituency, neighbouring Dimni, the conversations on caste are subtler. However, the seat’s loyalty has been to sitting MLA Kamlesh Jatav, irrespective of the party he contests from.

While the seat was a BJP bastion for two decades till 2013, Jatav won it in 2013 on a BSP ticket. In 2018, he stood as a Congress candidate and again won, while the BJP was reduced to third place. In 2020, Jatav moved from the Congress to the BJP along with Scindia, and resigned from the seat. But, in the resultant bypoll that he contested on a BJP ticket, he was again the winner.

Manoj Srivas, who runs a men’s salon in Ambah town, says Jatav might pay the price this time, though, for the disillusionment with the BJP government. Srivas talks about how he walked five nights and six days back home from Ahmedabad, where he was working in a five-star hotel, during the Covid lockdown, and asks how Chouhan can keep funding his “Yojna Machine”.

In the run-up to the elections, Chouhan, whose position is seen as shaky within the BJP even as he remains popular among the public, has announced a surfeit of new schemes or expanded old ones.

Giriraj Uchariya, a veterinary doctor, slams the parties for not talking of real issues, but invoking caste and religion, which both the BJP and Congress have resorted to this time. “We have realised that there is life beyond the stunts by these political leaders.”

The Brahmins aren’t the only ones angry at BJP politics either. The Gujjars, who have also been BJP supporters, complain that all favoured postings and appointments in the government go to Thakurs in the region.

According to Raghuraj Kushwaha, a flower dealer in Morena town, they still “love” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but not the BJP in the state. “His people have not done anything for us.”

For long, given its high Dalit population, Chambal was one of the few regions in the state where the BSP made its presence felt. It won 10 seats in undivided Madhya Pradesh in 1993, 8 in 1998, 2 in 2003, but 7 and 4 in 2008 and 2013, respectively. Its vote share has hovered between 9.1% and 5.01% (in 2018).

But, of the two BSP candidates who won in 2018, Sanjiv Kushwaha resigned and joined the BJP in 2020. In 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Lokendra Singh Rajput, who had won as a Samajwadi Party-BSP alliance from Guna, quit to join the Congress.

The defection of its leaders has eroded the credibility of the BSP. “Why should we vote for BSP candidates as they will join other parties later?” says Surendra, a daily labourer in Ambah.