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Madhya Pradesh by-polls: Campaign comes to end after bitter play of words
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan government needs to win 8 seats to get to the majority mark of 115 in the 230-member state assembly.
Election campaign across as many as 28 legislative assembly constituencies going to by-polls in Madhya Pradesh on November 3 came to an end on Sunday evening, as per officials. The polls will decide the fate of the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan government needs to win 8 seats to get to the majority mark of 115 in the 230-member state assembly, thus, retain power if it doesn’t have to be dependent on the support of non-Congress political parties’ and independent MLAs. Presently, one seat in the assembly is lying vacant.
There are as many as 355 candidates, including 22 woman candidates, contesting the by-polls. More than 63.5 lakh voters are expected to exercise franchise on November 3. The candidates include 25 such who resigned from the state assembly and later joined the BJP earlier this year.
The campaign saw a bitter fight mainly between the ruling party BJP and the Opposition Congress with a good number of complaints being lodged with the Election Commission on the use of alleged unparliamentary language or objectionable remarks being made by political leaders against their rivals.
While the EC deprived state Congress president Kamal Nath of his star campaigner status a couple of days back for his “Kya item hai ye” remark against woman and child development minister Imrati Devi, the constitutional body debarred higher education minister Mohan Yadav and Imrati Devi from holding and addressing any public meeting for a day on Saturday and Sunday.
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Similarly, the Commission warned BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and BJP candidate from Anuppur constituency Bisahulal Singh while it issued notices to BJP candidate Girraj Dandotia, BJP MLA Usha Thakur and Congress leaders Sajjan Singh Verma and Acharya Pramod Krishnan on complaints that they used objectionable remarks during their meetings.
It was during the campaign that the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s Gwalior bench, in its interim order dated October 20, expressed its displeasure over the conduct of politicians in the context of Covid-19 situation in the state and banned physical public meetings, subject to availability of possibility of virtual campaign, in 9 districts under its jurisdiction, which includes 8 districts in Gwalior-Chambal region. The Supreme Court later granted stay on the execution of the order. Through its earlier interim order, the high court ordered lodging of FIR against Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar and state Congress president Kamal Nath for violations of Covid-19 protocol.
Mythological characters like Ravana, Kans, Mareech, Shakuni were used as adjectives by the leaders for their rivals apart from several diatribes hurled against each other as the campaign gained momentum.
Social activist in Bhind, Sanjeev Barua, said, “It is unfortunate that whenever elections are held casteism and controversies decide the fate of elections and the real issues like those on development are hardly raised by the political parties.”
Another social worker from Gwalior, Umesh Vashishth, said, “For Gwalior-Chambal, the poor sex ratio is a major problem but none of political parties or politicians talk on this issue or any other issue related to women and children in the region.”
Jayant Singh Tomar, head of journalism department in a university, is contesting the by-polls and said, “It appears the real issues are deliberately suppressed by the political parties to ensure that they don’t have to answer the people as to what they have done in the name of development. Hence, unemployment, poor sex ratio, malnutrition, etc., never become issues in the elections.”
On the last day of the campaign on Sunday, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held roadshows and addressed election meetings in Biaora, Agar, Suwasra and Hatpipaliya constituencies, all in Malwa region.
Similarly, senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia addressed election meetings in Mehagaon, Bhander, Karaira and Ashok Nagar constituencies in the Gwalior-Chambal region, his home turf.
State Congress president Kamal Nath held a roadshow in Morena before addressing a meeting and later addressed party workers in Gwalior.
Addressing the public meeting in Ashok Nagar, Scindia said, “The crowd in meetings show the BJP is going to achieve a massive victory in the by-polls.”
He said, “I don’t aspire for chair and positions. Scindia family has never been in politics for the sake of power. We have always taken politics as a responsibility to secure the bright future of people.”
Chouhan in his meetings said, “I am committed to rebuilding Madhya Pradesh and make it self-reliance (Atmnirbhar) to make people’s lives better and bring a new ray of brightness in the life of my sons and daughters in the state.”
State Congress president Kamal Nath said in Gwalior, “People are eager to teach a lesson to those who betrayed the voters by resigning from the state assembly and later imposing by-polls on people.”
