BHOPAL: The BJP could not breach the Scindia citadel of Gwalior-Chambal in the recent Assembly bypolls in Madhya Pradesh despite the entire state machinery throwing its might behind the party candidates.
Almost the entire state cabinet, including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, campaigned for party candidates in the two constituencies that went to polls, Kolaras and Mungaoli. Seven of Chouhan’s ministers — six Cabinet ministers and a minister of state — come from the region. Yet, the party lost in both seats. The only consolation for the party was that it managed to narrow down the Congress candidates’ victory margins.
The results have once again established the clout of former Union minister and Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia in the region. It has also reaffirmed the fact that Gwalior-Chambal has been the weakest turf for the BJP, which has been in power in the state for 15 years. This is the ruling party’s fourth straight loss since April 2017.
In fact, three out of four Assembly bypolls lost by the BJP over last 10 months have been in the Gwalior-Chambal belt. Of the nine state bypolls the party has lost to the Congress since 2004, five were from this region.
The Gwalior-Chambal region comprises of Gwalior, Morena, Bhind, Sheopur, Shivpuri, Guna, Ashok Nagar and Datia districts and sends 32 out of 230 MLAs to the Assembly. Of these, the BJP won 18 iseats n 2013 Assembly polls, while the Congress won 12.
The BJP’s success rate in 2013 in the region was just above 56%, lower than its comparative success rates in two other weak regions — Mahakoshal (59%) and Vindhyan region (58%). Yet, Gwalior-Chambal has maximum representation of 30 per cent in the Chouhan ministry.
According to a senior BJP leader, the party’s defeat in Scindia’s bastion has drawn home an important point that the grip of the ministers from the region is not very strong on the ground.
“Though nearly the entire council of ministers was camping in the two Assembly seats, it was the CM’s charisma alone which brought the party close to upsetting Congress at least in Mungaoli. It also established beyond doubt that the ministers from the region don’t have the kind of clout the party needs them to help win more seats in the year-end Assembly polls,” said the BJP leader.
A party MLA from the Malwa-Nimar region said the failure of the ministers to help the party’s prospects clearly suggests that there is an urgent need for correction in ministerial team.
“Out of 66 seats at stake in 15 districts of Malwa-Nimar during the 2013 polls, the party won 57, which meant a success rate of over 86 per cent, and overall accounted for 35 per cent of the party’s total tally of 165. But we only have four Cabinet ministers and two MoSes in the present council of ministers. I hope the CM includes more faces from Malwa-Nimar in next cabinet expansion,” said the BJP MLA.
Interestingly, state’s commercial capital Indore, which had two Cabinet ministers during Chouhan’s previous term, has no representation at present despite eight out of nine MLAs from the district being from BJP.
State BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chouhan, however, sees a morale booster even in defeat as the party managed to close down the gap in both seats.
The defeat has also exposed the problems being faced by the BJP in finding out strong candidates in Congress bastions. Despite repeated push for fielding fresh faces, the BJP fielded the widow of 2013 loser candidate Deshraj Singh from Mungaoli and Devendra Jain, who had lost last time, from Kolaras.
“It was the shady image of her son that saw BJP candidate Bai Sahab Yadav lose by 2,123 votes in Mungaoli. Had the party fielded a new face, it might have upset the Congress,” said a BJP leader.