The bugle has been sounded for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections with the announcement of the schedule for general election in five states by chief election commissioner V.S. Sampath in New Delhi on Friday and the two main rivals in MP — the ruling BJP and the Congress — are now getting into the war mode for the electoral battle which will conclude with polling for all the 230 Assembly seats in the state on November 25 and counting of votes on December 8.
The bugle has been sounded for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections with the announcement of the schedule for general election in five states by chief election commissioner V.S. Sampath in New Delhi on Friday and the two main rivals in MP — the ruling BJP and the Congress — are now getting into the war mode for the electoral battle which will conclude with polling for all the 230 Assembly seats in the state on November 25 and counting of votes on December 8. The BJP, which is trying to accomplish mission-2013 by scoring a hat-trick by winning the state Assembly election, is banking heavily on the popularity of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the pro-people policies, especially schemes catering to women and girls, weaker sections and the farm sector, that have been launched and implemented by successive state BJP governments since 2003. At the same time, BJP seniors are also aware of the anti-incumbency factor and they have acknowledged on many occasions that the voters’ choice might get influenced to a large extent by the image of the ministers and the ruling party MLAs. The main Opposition Congress, after losing two successive elections, particularly in 2008 due to inner-party rivalry, groupism and sabotage on a large scale, has tried to project itself as a consolidated state party unit with party leaders sharing a common platform and jointly addressing pre-election rallies across the state to demonstrate unity. The Congress leadership has also brought in Union minister Jyotoraditya Scindia as a star campaigner by appointing him as chairman of the campaign committee. In the run-up to the polls, Congress rallies in different parts of the state, which have been addressed by top State Congress leaders, have conveyed the message of party unity in ample measure but interacting separately with the staunch loyalists and supporters of the state Congress bosses, one gathers that there is lack of trust among them.
