MP: Congress triad raring to unseat Shivraj Singh Chouhan

A resurgent Congress powered by the trio of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh is giving the ruling BJP a challenge ahead of Assembly polls later this year. While farm distress is bothering the BJP, the Congress is in a dilemma whether to announce a CM face amid competing aspirations of its top leaders.

Bhopal: All eyes are focused on the moves of the "triad" of Madhya Pradesh Congress — Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh   — as they look to foil the ruling BJP's bid to win for the fourth successive time in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections later this year.

The Congress high command still appears to be caught in a dilemma on whether to announce a chief minister face amid competing aspirations of leaders within the party or go to elections under "collective leadership", but the Opposition party has firmed up plans to capitalise on the perceived anti-incumbency and a brewing anger among farmers.

The Congress has already begun the exercise to woo farmers and youths at a time when Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has expanded his council of ministers by inducting three members to attract voters of the powerful Patidar, Patel and Kushwaha communities.

BJP legislators Balkrishna Patidar, Narayan Singh Kushwaha and Jalam Singh Patel were inducted as ministers by Mr Chouhan and, after the oath-taking ceremony of the new ministers, the chief minister said another Cabinet expansion is on the cards.

Facing his biggest electoral challenge yet, the chief minister is also trying to do his bit to fight the so-called anti-incumbency, address the brewing anger among farmers under debt and undo the harm done by the killing of six farmers in police firing in Mandsaur last year.

Sources revealed that the chief minister was likely to announce a partial farm loan waiver on the lines of the scheme declared by Maharashtra to write off debts of farmers declared as defaulters to make them eligible for fresh bank loans. Around 20 lakh farmers in MP are estimated to benefit by such a scheme.

Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath during a bypoll campaign rally.

In the 230-seat MP Assembly, the BJP has a strength of 165 and the Congress 56.

The big challenge before Congress is to bring its "triad" together for the big assault on the ruling BJP. There still is a concern whether Mr Singh, Mr Nath and Mr Scindia will be able to put up a united fight against the BJP.

While Mr Scindia, who is believed to be leading the race for the chief minister face among his party colleagues, has been vocal on the party declaring a chief ministerial face before the election of the party, former chief minister Mr Singh is reported to be in favour of going to polls under "collective leadership".

"It is a convention in the party that the chief minister is chosen by the legislators after the Congress wins elections," said MP Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Arun Yadav, himself a chief ministerial aspirants.

Mr Singh, currently in the middle of his six-month "spiritual" Narmada Parikrama, scheduled to end in March, has been billed to play key role in deciding the fate of Congress in the Assembly elections.

The who's who of MP Congress, including Mr Scindia, has paid a visit to Mr Singh during his ongoing Narmada Parikrama.

In the BJP camp, there is discomfort over the perceived enthusiasm in the Congress.

Two purported internal surveys, one by the state BJP unit and the other by the chief minister, conducted at a gap of six months in the second part of last year have dropped enough hints that the BJP may find itself in a spot of bother if it fails to address anti-incumbency and farm distress in time.

"One positive take-away from the surveys is that the chief minister still enjoys voter confidence. The anti-establishment mood noticed among electorates in some pockets of the state has nothing to do with performance of the government," said a party leader.

"The disillusionment among the voters has been found constituency-specific, sparked by local non-functioning MLAs of the party," he said.

Mr Chouhan, who is set to lead the party in the polls, held meetings with "non-performing" legislators recently in the wake of the findings of the surveys and issued them an ultimatum to "shape up or wrap up" .

BJP strategists feel that Mr Chouhan, being an OBC leader who assiduously cultivated an image of being pro-farmer in his 13-year-long tenure as chief minister, is still the best bet for the party in the elections.

Moreover, his popularity has not been dented despite being in power for three terms in a row.

"The party is mulling to change unpopular MLAs to counter the perceived anti-incumbency. The leadership is toying with the idea of replacing as many as 45 sitting legislators with Digvijay Singh undertaking Narmada Parikrama.new faces before the elections," a top-rung leader of the party confided.

More than the anti-incumbency factor, what worries the BJP the most is apparent growing unrest among the farming community in the state, that took a violent turn in June last year, leading to the death of six farmers in police firing in Mandsaur district.

The chief minister has also announced measures to deal with the farm crisis to blunt Congress attempts to woo peasants in view of the Mandsaur incident.

Out of the 7.2 crore population of MP, 31.02 per cent are cultivators and 38.06 per cent are farm labourers, as per the 2011 census.