38 seats in tribal-dominated region of Madhya Pradesh witnessing close battles

JABALPUR/MANDLA/SEONI/CHHINDWARA: Mahakaushal, the tribal-dominated region of Madhya Pradesh, represents the clash of the titans. With state presidents of both Congress and BJP – Kamal Nath and Rakesh Singh – hailing from this region, Mahakaushal presents a tough and interesting fight.

BJP and Congress are neck-and neck in Mahakaushal, which comprises eight districts and 38 assembly constituencies. With a well-entrenched RSS network working assiduously in educational institutions, Mahakaushal has been a BJP bastion.

The party had won 22 of 38 assembly seats in 2013 and had 24 seats in 2008.

Though Nath has nurtured his home turf Chhindwara and has returned as an MP nine times, Congress has failed to make a mark at the hustings.

However, this time, the party is giving a tough fight to the incumbent BJP.

The biggest turnaround seems to be in Jabalpur, the largest district of the region with eight assembly constituencies and a BJP bastion. Of the eight seats, BJP had won six in 2013 and Congress two. However, Congress seems to have upped its game especially with a focused campaign against electricity meters and Narmada pollution. A vicious outbreak of dengue and chikungunya, which has continued from the monsoons till the winter months leading up to the elections, have not augured well for BJP. What has left the BJP red-faced is the fact that people have died in health minister Sharad Jain’s Jabalpur North constituency.

Similarly, Congress is gaining ground in Chhindwara, Mandla, Shahdol, Seoni and Narsinghpur. In tribal-dominated Balaghat Congress is facing intense in-fighting.

The main reason here seems to be the general fatigue with BJP’s sitting MLAs. In conversations with voters, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is never faulted for schemes not percolating down to the grassroots but there is an angst against many of his absentee MLAs who have entrusted constituency work to their workers.

BJP is trying to counter this anti-incumbency by invoking former Congress chief minister Digvijaya Singh’s regime. BJP’s radio jingles begin with “yaad hai Digvijaya ki Congress sarkar? Woh din wapis mat layiye”. This works very well with the older age group. However, the youth voters – being targeted by both parties – don’t recall anything from Singh’s regime. Sonu, a taxi driver from Seoni, says, “We don’t even remember him.

My father says that he had taken political vanvaas. But this time we will vote for new roads, primary health centres and teachers. My children go to school and they have teachers but these teachers just come and serve mid-day meals.”

In Mandla and Balaghat, the tribals are unhappy with the lack of development.

When ET visited the roads leading to tribal villages, they were being re-carpeted. Raghuram, a former panchayat secretary, said, “The roads have been in a poor state since monsoons. The work was sanctioned earlier and now closer to the elections they are being re-carpeted.”