BHOPAL: In a ‘divide and rule’ tactic, the opposition Congress has targeted old BJP families to breach saffron bastions in Madhya Pradesh assembly polls.
Four days after announcing 144 candidates for the 230-member assembly seats in the state, the Congress on Thursday released its second list of 88 candidates (three candidates named in the first list were changed). The list features at least five former BJP leaders, including four former MLAs – Deepak Joshi (ex-minister), Girija Shankar Sharma, Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat and Abhay Mishra.
The Grand Old Party also went ahead with exploiting the divide in old BJP families in at least two seats that haven’t been won by the Congress for years. The party fielded two close relatives of multiple-time BJP MLAs in two saffron citadels of Vindhya and Bundelkhand regions.
In the Vindhya region’s newly created Mauganj district’s Deotalab seat, the party fielded Padmesh Gautam against the third-time sitting MLA Girish Gautam, the Speaker and an uncle of Padmesh Gautam. The Congress’ plan to counter the BJP veteran was a conscious decision, keeping in mind the results of the 2022 Janpad panchayat polls, when Padmesh Gautam defeated his cousin and Vidhan Sabha Speaker’s son Rahul Gautam.
In Bundelkhand region’s Sagar district, the party has gone ahead with the same strategy on Sagar seat, which for three decades has been BJP’s fortress. Putting the same strategy into practice against the third-time sitting BJP MLA Shailendra Jain, the party fielded his sister-in-law Nidhi Jain (brother’s wife) as Congress candidate.
As per an MP Congress leader hailing from Sagar district, the party while taking the decision of fielding a sister-in-law against her sitting MLA brother-in-law, had particularly studied the results of 2022 Sagar mayoral polls, in which despite losing the election as Congress candidate, Nidhi had polled an impressive 58,000 votes, despite the BJP MLA campaigning against her. “If the same trend continues, then the November 17 polls in Sagar assembly seat may well go down the wire,” the senior state Congress leader added.
Exploiting divisions
The Congress released its second list of 88 candidates. It features at least five former BJP leaders, including four former MLAs – Deepak Joshi (ex-minister), Girija Shankar Sharma, Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat and Abhay Mishra.