By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal): Defying all speculations rightist Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), in Madhya Pradesh has not only retained power but romped home with absolute majority with having won 143 seats in the 230-member legislative assembly. In the results announced here on Monday BJP created a record of sort as it is for the first time that a non-Congress government in the state has retained power.
BJP’s main poll plank was development with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan being its mascot which steamrolled Congress’ corruption charges as the electorates preferred the former while ignoring the latter’s allegations with impunity. In the outgoing assembly, BJP had 173 members while main opposition Congress had 38.
The 49-year-old Chouhan began his electoral politics by winning Budhni assembly seat in 1990, but quit the seat on November 23, 1991 to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Vidisha seat. Since then he represented Vidisha where he was popularly known as “Panv-panv wale Bhaiya” (one who always toured the constituency on foot) till he was elected the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.
A jubilant Chouhan said: “It is the victory of the people of Madhya Pradesh”. “It is the victory of the development works of the government,” he added.
It is not only the political observers but punters also had given the BJP a clear edge over its main rival Congress but their assessment was that BJP would garner 90-110 seats while Congress could capture 80-90, thereby leading to a hung House. But all predictions of poll pundits went haywire as all proved to be off the mark.
Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party, (BSP), and Samajwadi Party, (SP), along with Uma Bharti’s BJS were expected to play a spoilsport role and prove a thorn in the flesh of BJP and Congress both in government formation came a cropper. The BSP could corner just seven seats out of 228 it contested, BJS party could muster just five seats out of 201 and SP only one out of 187. Only three Independent candidates were successful out of over 1300 that contested.
While, the Madhya Pradesh assembly election results have proved that Bharatiya Janshakti, (BJS), Party president Uma Bharti, who is a former chief minister of the state, is no longer a force to reckon with in the state politics. She was decimated at the hustings as she lost by a margin of 9000 votes.
Bharti, who had initially said that she would not contest the elections, later on changed her mind and decided by a margin of 9000 votes to enter the race from Tikamgarh.
But, she was unable to taste victory and was humbled at the hands of Yadvendra Singh of the Congress. Madhya Pradesh Minister Akhand Pratap Singh, the BJP nominee, was relegated to the fourth place and even lost his security deposit.
Bharti had been saying repeatedly that her main aim in these elections was to defeat the BJP. But, she came a cropper and the BJP romped home comfortably.
Barely two days ago, Bharti had told media persons in Tikamgarh that if she does not succeed in her mission then she will give up politics for good and go to Kedarnath. She had said she would quit politics if BJP won in Madhya Pradesh. The BJS had been floated about two and a half years ago.
The results also prove the BJP’s contention that no one was above the party and if someone left it, he or she would not be in a position to damage it. They say that five years is a short time in politics but for Bharti it has been a long period during which she travelled from being the BJP’s chief ministerial nominee to being the head of a marginal party, which had grandiose aims of ensuring BJP’s defeat.
Meanwhile, it may be pointed out here that out of 34 Muslims which were fielded by Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, BSP and SP only a lone Muslim has again entered the Vidhan Sabha. He is Arif Aqueel from the Congress who retained his seat of Bhopal North defeating his nearest rival Alok Sharma of BJP by a margin of over 4000 votes. In the outgoing members of the Assembly he and Hamid Qazi of NCP were the only two Muslims. In the ensuing election Qazi lost from Burhanpur.
It may be mentioned here that the Madhya Pradesh assembly that was constituted in 1993 did not have a single Muslim MLA while prior this in 1990 Vidhan Sabha elections a lone Muslim had entered the House that too on a BJP ticket. In the ensuing elections Congress has given ticket to five Muslims and left one seat for one sitting Muslim MLA from the NCP. SP had fielded 16, which is the highest number by any recognized and registered party, and BSP gave tickets to 12 Muslims to try their lucks at the hustings.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai terror attacks seem to have an effect on the voting pattern in Madhya Pradesh as BJP, which raked up the terrorism issue, pushed anti-incumbency to the back burner. Madhya Pradesh went to polls on November 27, just a day after the Mumbai attacks, which gave the BJP an issue to put Congress on the mat. The BJP was quick to cash on the Mumbai mayhem as it put advertisements in the print media appealing to the voters to give a strong reply to the terrorists by voting in large numbers.
What was being perceived a neck-to-neck fight between the Congress and the BJP went in favour of the latter in the post-noon session on the polling day when voters in various parts of the state came out in large numbers to cast their votes and it was well reflected from the high percentage of voting in many regions of Madhya Pradesh. As such highest-ever poll percentage of 70.47 per cent was recorded this time round which obviously went in the favour of BJP.
According to political observers the large turn-out of voters favoured the BJP, particularly after the terrorists attack in Mumbai. Since terrorism was the one of main poll plank of BJP apart from development in the current elections, the worst-ever terrorists attack in India on the eve of polling, as only strengthened the fear of the people on terrorism issue. As such in all probability, the people voted for the BJP which had put terrorism very high on its electoral agenda, the observers feel. However, the BJP had also raised the terrorism issue in Delhi, which went to polls on November 29, but it failed to reap any electoral benefits there.
Meanwhile, election results sprang many a surprise with many stalwarts of both the ruling BJP and the Congress being trounced at the hustings. Prominent among the BJP losers were Himmat Kothari and Kusum Mehdele, both ministers in the outgoing government and Kailash Chawla.
For the Congress, the defeat of many of its stalwarts was stunning. The state heads of all its frontal organisations, like Jitu Patwari of Youth Congress, Shobha Ojha of Mahila Congress and Rashmi Pawar of National Students Union of India (NSUI), lost.
More shocking was the defeat of Subhash Yadav, who was the state Congress president till a few months ago. He was also a deputy chief minister in the Digvijay Singh government. Deputy Speaker of the outgoing state assembly Hazarilal Raghuvanshi of the Congress also lost. Not only this former Speaker and Congress veteran leader Srinivas Tiwari had to lick dust at the hustings.
The BJP state president Narendra Singh Tomar said here on Monday that the party’s victory indicates the people’s faith in the policies and performances of the State Government.
On the other side the Congress had attributed the BJP’s electoral victory to the misuse of money and muscle power. Congress State president, Suresh Pachouri has offered to resign owning the moral responsibility for party’s defeat. ([email protected])