Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh will go to polls on Friday to decide the electoral fate of a number of political bigwigs — BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the longest serving chief minister of his state; Bhupesh Baghel, the chief minister with spunk from the Congress; Kamal Nath, state Congress chief and Congress veteran; as well as Chhattisgarh deputy CM TS Singh Deo.
The high-decibel campaigning came to an end on November 15, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s last-minute jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi creating at least 24 hours of buzz. He called the former Congress president moorkhon ke sardar (king of fools) during a public rally at Betul in Madhya Pradesh, in response to Gandhi’s ‘made in China phones’ remark.
It has been a largely bipolar battle between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress in MP. The first phase of elections for 20 seats in the Naxal-hit Chhattisgarh was held on November 7 and saw a high voter turnout of 78 percent.
But, this was not all. There has been much melodrama and speculation from the beginning about the comeback of Shivraj ‘Mama’ with the Congress riding high on the anti-incumbency sentiment. The excitement has been palpable in the run-up to the polls in Chhattisgarh, too, with Baghel’s name being linked with the alleged Mahadev online betting scam.
Madhya Pradesh
In the single phase voting, people will decide the electoral fate of 2,533 candidates in 230 assembly seats — 47 are reserved for scheduled tribes (ST) and 35 for scheduled castes (SC). The state has more than 5.6 crore registered electors — 2,87,82,261 males, 2,71,99,586 females and 1,292 third gender persons are eligible to exercise their franchise. This also includes service and overseas electors.
Polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm in all assembly segments except Baihar, Lanjhi and Paraswada seats in Balaghat district, 55 booths in Bichhiya and Mandla seats as well as 40 polling stations of Dindori district, which are all Naxal-affected. The voting time in these areas is 7 am to 3 pm, chief electoral officer (CEO) Anupam Rajan said.
A mock poll will be conducted in the presence of authorised polling agents 90 minutes before the actual voting. A total of 64,626 polling stations have been set up in the state. Among these, 64,523 are main booths and 103 associate (sahayak) stations, where number of electors is more than 1,500. The number of “critical” voting stations stands at 17,032, while 5,260 booths will have all women polling personnel, the official said. At least 183 polling stations have been set up for persons with disabilities (PwD).
For the first time, 371 youth-managed booths have been set up, while the number of “model” polling stations stands at 2,536. Fifty-seven “green” booths (environment-friendly centres) — 50 in Jabalpur and seven in Balaghat — have also been established.
Key candidates
Besides Chouhan from Budhni and Nath from Chhindwara, three union ministers from the BJP — Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste — are contesting the polls. The party’s general secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya is contesting from Indore-1 and three Lok Sabha MPs — Rakesh Singh, Ganesh Singh and Riti Pathak — are also in the fray. Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s son and ex-state minister Jaivardhan Singh and former CM Arjun Singh’s son Ajay Singh are contesting from their traditional Raghogarh and Churhat seats.
Top leaders of contesting parties criss-crossed the state addressing rallies, holding roadshows, trading charges and making a slew of promises to seek votes for their candidates. Prime Minister Modi, union home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, defence minister Rajnath Singh among others addressed rallies to drum up support for the saffron camp.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Digvijaya Singh among others, addressed rallies to seek support for their nominees.
The PM paid nine visits to the state and addressed 14 public meetings after elections were announced. The BJP is heavily banking on his charisma to retain power.
The Congress, with 114 seats, emerged as the single largest party after the 2018 polls and formed the government with the help of BSP, SP and independent MLAs under the leadership of Nath. But the regime collapsed in March 2020 after a rebellion by now union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Congress MLAs loyal to him, paving the way for the return of the BJP headed by Chouhan.
Chhattisgarh
The ruling Congress, voted to office in 2018 after 15 years in opposition, and the BJP are the main contenders for power in the state. The AAP, BSP and some regional outfits are also in the fray. While the Congress has set an ambitious target of winning 75-plus assembly seats, the opposition BJP is seeking to make a comeback to power in the state, which it ruled non-stop from 2003 to 2018.
A total of 958 candidates – 827 men, 130 women and one transgender person – are contesting for 70 seats spread across 22 districts. As many as 1,63,14,479 voters – 81,41,624 men, 81,72,171 women and 684 of third gender – are eligible to exercise their franchise at 18,833 polling booths.
At 26, the Raipur City West seat has the highest number of contestants, while Dondilohara in Balod district has the lowest count of candidates at four. Among the candidates, 70 each are from the BJP and Congress. There are 43 nominees from the AAP, 62 from the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and 33 from the Hamar Raj Party. The Mayawati-led BSP and the Gondwana Ganatantra Party, a regional political outfit, are contesting in alliance and have fielded 43 and 26 candidates.
Polling time in all the 70 constituencies is from 8 am to 5 pm, except in nine polling booths in the Naxal-affected Bindranawagarh seat in Rajim district, where voting will be held from 7 am to 3 pm for security reasons. Out of a total of 18,833 booths, 700 are ‘sangwari’ polling booths entirely managed by women personnel.
Out of the 70 assembly segments up for grabs, 44 are in the general category, while 17 are reserved for STs and nine for SCs.
Key candidates
Baghel (Patan seat), Singh Deo (Ambikapur), assembly speaker Charan Das Mahant (Sakti), eight state ministers, including Tamrdhwaj Sahu (Durg Rural) and Ravindra Choubey (Saja), are among prominent Congress candidates in the second phase.
From the BJP, state unit chief and MP Arun Sao (Lormi), Leader of Opposition in the assembly Narayan Chandel (Janjgir-Champa), union minister Renuka Singh (Bharatpur-Sonhat-ST), MP Gomti Sai (Pathalgaon-ST), former ministers Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur South), Ajay Chandrakar (Kurud) and Punnulal Mohile (Mungeli) are among key candidates.
Baghel has been contesting from his traditional Patan seat where the BJP has fielded his distant nephew and party MP Vijay Baghel. The candidature of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) state president and son of former chief minister Ajit Jogi, Amit Jogi, in Patan has added a new dimension to the contest.
The BJP has fielded a fresh face, Rajesh Agrawal, against Singh Deo in Ambikapur. Agrawal had joined the BJP, after quitting the Congress, ahead of the assembly polls in 2018.
The BJP’s poll campaign was spearheaded by PM Modi, who addressed four well-attended rallies for the second phase and targeted the Baghel-led government over corruption, particularly the alleged Mahadev betting app scam, as well as the recruitment scandal and Naxalism. Top BJP leaders, while on campaign trail, also criticised Baghel over the alleged betting app scam and religious conversion, and accused the ruling Congress of indulging in appeasement politics.
Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi led the campaign for the ruling party and mounted a counter-offensive claiming their party is concerned about the interest of the poor, while the BJP-led Centre only works for the welfare of the rich. The Congress based its campaign on a slew of welfare schemes rolled out by the Baghel government for farmers, women, tribals and Dalits, and accused the Centre of handing over resources to select industrialists. The party has tried to woo farmers with promise of a loan waiver, also made by it in 2018, and other backward castes (OBCs) with a caste survey.
The Congress registered a landslide victory in the 2018 polls, winning 68 out of the 90 seats. The BJP was reduced to just 15 seats, while the JCC (J) and the BSP bagged five and two seats. The Congress later added more seats in bypolls and its tally in the outgoing assembly is 71.
(With PTI inputs)
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