Alarm Bells ring for Cong. BJP in MP, as BSP is the party to watch | N.D.Sharma

Published on 30-01-2008 In National

Viewed 1434 times

Alarm Bells ring for Cong. BJP in MP, as BSP is the party to watch

Madhya Pradesh has been, by and large, a two-party State, with the Congress and the BJP alternating each other as the ruling party. The other parties have had their presence in certain pockets and none of them has come to acquire the commanding position so far. They are, however, striving to acquire the centre-stage, if not the seat of power, in this year's Assembly elections. Looking at the BJP's narcissism and the Congress party's death wish, it will not be surprising if the hegemony of the two main political parties gets disturbed. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) needs to be particularly watched.

The present Assembly has 20 members of 10 'other' parties, the total strength of the House being 230. The BJP had won 172 seats while the Congress strength was reduced to 39. Having been in power for ten years, the Congress was at the receiving end in the last elections in 2003, for its abject failure to attend to the people's problems. On the other side, the BJP had started the campaign for the November elections in the beginning of that year.

The BJP campaign was led by Uma Bharati, a powerful speaker with few to rival her in arousing the people's sentiments. That she is a woman and is a sadhvi only adds to her charm. However, that was not enough. Uma Bharati was anointed as the BJP's chief ministerial candidate at a public meeting by Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani. All the factions of the party were behind her and the central leadership saw to it that they remained so.

The Congress, on the other hand, was in a pretty bad shape. After remaining in power for ten years, Digvijay Singh had become arrogant, and consequently, unpopular. Several Congress candidates had conveyed to the PCC that they did not want Digvijay Singh to campaign in their constituencies. The other Congress leaders had not campaigned for the party but only for the candidates owing allegiance to them.

Of the other parties, Samajwadi Party had got the highest number of seats – seven, followed by Gondwana Ganatantra Party (3), Rashtriya Samanata Dal and BSP (2 each), Janata Dal (United), NCP and CPI-M (one each). Two independents had won. One SP candidate was elected in a recent by-election.

The present scene is depressing for both, the BJP and the Congress. The BJP has perhaps the weakest ever chief minister in Shivraj Singh Chauhan who has messed up everything. The BJP leaders were openly accused of having amassed wealth at the cost of the people during the Khargone Lok Sabha by-election campaign and the BJP MLAs were not allowed to campaign even in their own constituencies. Later at the party's chintan baithak at Sanchi, Chauhan was described as the most ineffective chief minister by his own party leaders. At least half a dozen of his party colleagues, some of them in his cabinet, are waiting in the wings to replace him.

If the BJP is not in a shape, the Congress as a party is virtually non-existent. There are individuals. The PCC has not been constituted for the past four years. PCC chief Subhash Yadav is allergic to most of the other leaders, especially to Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Jamuna Devi and former chief minister Digvijay Singh. He has appointed about two dozen spokespersons; no one really knows what they are supposed to do.

Uma Bharati is down but not out yet. She is moving across the State lambasting the "corrupt and inefficient" government of Chauhan. She has also announced that she will put forward her Bharatiya Jana Shakti party's candidates in all the 230 constituencies and has even named candidates for some of the constituencies.

Her party is in a shambles. Most of the leaders who had come along with her have gone back to the BJP. Former Union Minister Prahlad Patel has been sidelined. He was the first important leader to stand by her in her fight against the BJP leadership and had then stood up to Uma Bharati when she had tried to persuade the Bharatiya Jana Shakti candidates in Gujarat and in Khargone (Lok Sabha) and Sanver (Assembly) by-elections in Madhya Pradesh. He has neither been appointed an office-bearer of the Bharatiya Jana Shakti nor included in the party's executive committee recently reconstituted by Uma Bharati.

Thus it is too much to expect that Uma will be able to snatch the power with her rump of a party. But she can definitely become a wet blanket for the BJP in the elections by highlighting the failures of the government which she claims as her 'child'. A section of the RSS and top BJP leadership is said to be still trying for Uma's return to the BJP. The party leaders in Madhya Pradesh are, though, vehemently opposed to her being taken back.

Of the 'other' parties, SP and BSP appear to be making a serious bid for sharing power, particularly the latter. The BSP had a steady growth in Madhya Pradesh. In 1998, it had 11 members in the House; three later went to Chhatisgarh when the new State was carved out in 2000. Though its tally declined from 8 in 1998 to 2 in 2003, its vote percentage had gone up. The BSP candidates came second in as many as 17 constituencies. Quite a number of its candidates lost by small margins.

It may have done better but for the pre-election split. The party's State unit president, Phool Singh Baraiya, who had worked hard for the past several years to make the BSP a formidable force in Madhya Pradesh, had parted company with Mayawati and formed a new party a few months before the election. Baraiya and his supporters had refused to agree to an electoral understanding with the Congress for which both Digvijay Singh and Mayawati were keen.

The BSP was then a party of Dalits only. After its recent success in Uttar Pradesh, it is now trying to transform itself into a heterogeneous organisation in Madhya Pradesh also. The party has already organised at various places in the State several sammelans of different castes, such as Brahmans and Kshatriyas, which were attended by the caste leaders from Uttar Pradesh.

While the BSP is eyeing power in Madhya Pradesh and plans to contest all the 230 seats, the SP aims only at emerging as the Third Force where it can play the balancing game. Its plan, as of now, is to contest around 100 seats.

Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP) has its strength in the tribal areas of the Mahakoshal region and it should not be surprising if it increases its tally from the present three. The alarm bells are ringing for both the main political parties.

0 Comments

Blog

Print