- She corners BJP on problems and basic issues of state
- Whereas Kamal Nath is surrounding on corruption instead of populist announcements
Milind Muzumdar, Indore
Looking at the election campaign in Madhya Pradesh, it seems that this time the election is issue-less. Both Congress and BJP are campaigning on allegations and counter-allegations instead of talking on issues and development. If we talk about the election campaign of Congress, then both the main issues of Rahul Gandhi, caste census and corruption of Gautam Adani are not connecting much with the public. Priyanka Gandhi is naturally proving to be a better communicator than Rahul. She is cornering BJP on the failure of the state government and on fundamental issues.
On Monday and Wednesday, in the meetings of Indore area number 5, Sanver and Dahi of Kukshi assembly constituency, she cornered BJP on the issues of unemployment, inflation and law and order. She enumerated the guarantee schemes of Congress one by one. She also tried to corner Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government on basic issues. Priyanka Gandhi is definitely proving to be a trump card for Congress. The crowd in her meetings rivals that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The special thing is that Congress is using her more in rural areas. Most of Rahul Gandhi’s speech is spent in making personal allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He speaks strongly on the issue of Gautam Adani. Apart from this, caste census is also the main topic of his speeches. As far as caste census is concerned, Congress is standing on weak ground in this matter. BJP has fielded more OBC candidates than Congress. Apart from this, Rahul Gandhi’s OBC card cannot work in Madhya Pradesh under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Kamal Nath himself knows this very well. Because of this he does not say anything on the issue of OBC. Anyway, casteism does not exist in Madhya Pradesh except in some assembly constituencies adjoining Uttar Pradesh. For this reason, Priyanka Gandhi’s meetings are proving to be more effective for Congress.
If a Congress government is formed in the state, then Priyanka Gandhi’s election campaign will have a big role in it. The effect of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s Ladli Lakshmi and Ladli Behna Yojana is that instead of Congress’s populist announcements, Kamal Nath is busy attacking the BJP government on corruption. His speech mainly focuses on corruption and law and order. Overall, Congress’s election campaign has centered around Priyanka Gandhi and Kamal Nath. The rest of the star campaigners do not seem to have much role to play. Overall, public issues seem to be missing from the election campaign. Efforts are being made from both sides to woo the public on the basis of personal allegations and counter-allegations.
Activism of Digvijay Singh!
Congress is facing a problem in the state due to the tension between Digvijay Singh and Kamal Nath. As a result of the efforts of Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, the rhetoric of both has stopped. Digvijay Singh is also in the field, but is not working with the same enthusiasm with which he was working before the ticket distribution. If this time there is more rebellion in Congress than last time, it is because Digvijay Singh did not pressurize his supporters to work in favor of Congress. Most of the Congress rebels are supporters of Digvijay Singh. Digvijay Singh has still not recovered from the way Kamal Nath shocked him during the ticket distribution process. Just as Digvijay Singh had organized a rally for Congress in 2018. It doesn’t look like that. His activity has also reduced to 50 percent compared to before. Last year, Digvijay Singh had announced that he would personally visit those seats to strengthen the organization and field workers where Congress had lost last time. Digvijay Singh had started visiting all such assemblies, but the way Kamal Nath acted as per his wish in ticket distribution upset Digvijay Singh. The result is that it seems that he is participating in the election campaign only formally. The activeness with which his presence is visible is not visible this time. Digvijay Singh is especially hurt by Sajjan Verma’s statements and his attitude. The booth management of Congress is being affected due to Digvijay Singh’s inflexibility. The atmosphere is in favor of Congress, but it will be difficult to maintain this atmosphere till the voting day without Digvijay Singh. Randeep Surjewala has also reduced his activity in the last two days of the campaign. At present, only Kamal Nath has taken overall command of the election management and election campaign. He is also watching Booth management.
