By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: People in Madhya Pradesh, the central Indian state of India, are all geared up to decide as to which political outfit or conglomerate rules them for next five years when they would cast their valuable votes on Thursday to seal the fate of the contestants.
The electoral battle in Madhya Pradesh, if the past record since independence is analyzed, has been traditionally a two horse race between Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), with other parties having no say in the formation of the government but only token presence.
However, this time round in the ensuing elections the story may not be the same. The presence of other political outfits such as Bahujan Samaj Party, (BSP), Uma Bharti’s Bharatiya Janshakti, Samajwadi Party and some regional parties in collaboration with rebels are set to queer the pitch for the traditional rivals Congress and BJP and play spoilsport in their bid to wrest or retain power as the case may be.
With such a scenario emerging in Madhya Pradesh then the possibility of a hung assembly for the first time in its history cannot be ruled out, political observers feel. The ruling BJP which was propelled to power by Ms Uma Bharti, the stormy petrel of Indian politics, in 2003 elections has been devoid of her services this time after she was expelled from the party and she has floated her own political outfit christened as Bharatiya Janshakti, (BJS). The fast emergence of regional parties on the state electoral stage and rebels from both the BJP and the Congress getting refuge in Uma Bharti’s BJS to realize their political fortunes at the hustings strongly indicate towards a hung assembly.
The elections have in a sense been reduced to a battle between claims of development being made by the ruling BJP and charges of corruption leveled against it by the Congress.
The BJP claims that the development it undertook in Madhya Pradesh in the last five years was much more than that development done by Congress during its term in 50 years.
Commenting on this, Congress spokesman Arvind Malaviya said BJP must agree that the corruption done by the saffron party during its five-year rule was more than what Congress has done in 50 years.
Meanwhile, Muslims, who comprise 6.4 percent out of 60 million population in Madhya Pradesh, are a dejected lot as their representation in the ensuing elections is very negligible. Over the years their representation has been declining. Congress which is considered to be Muslims’ savior as a general perception has also left the community high and dry.
The Congress has put up only five Muslim candidates while Muslims are conspicuous in the BJP’s list of candidates. Samajwadi Party has fielded 16, which is the highest number by any recognized and registered party, and BSP 12 Muslims to try their lucks at the hustings. The outgoing assembly has just two Muslim members — Arif Aqueel of the Congress, representing Bhopal North, and the Nationlist Congress Party’s Hameed Qazi (Burhanpur).
Ever since Madhya Pradesh was formed in the mid-fifties, the state has witnessed a two-party system under which the Congress has ruled the state for most of the time, with the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal assuming power in the late sixties for some time, the Janata party in 1977 and the BJP in 1990.
But the present BJP government in Madhya Pradesh headed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the first non-Congress government in the state to complete a full five-year term in office.
Hence, in case it wins these elections, it will be a record for a non-Congress government to come to power in Madhya Pradesh for the second time in succession.
After the carving out of Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh, the state assembly has got a total of 230 seats which have a total of 3,180 candidates.