Choice of candidates turns crucial in Malwa-Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh

INDORE: Elections in the Malwa-Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh, which goes to polls in the last phase on May 19, mainly hinges around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity versus Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s farm loan waiver promise, which had helped the party reap good political dividends in the 2018 assembly polls. The Congress had secured 114 seats in the 230-seat assembly and toppled the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government with the help of BSP, SP and some independents. This time, the Congress is trying to thwart the BJP’s attempt to make the battle Modi-centric and its focus on nationalism and Hindutva, by highlighting local issues. As ET travelled across the region, the key issues seem to be strong leadership, national security, farm loan waiver, unemployment and demonetisation.
PRO-MODI SENTIMENTS
“I will vote for Narendra Modi since the country needs a prime minister like him,” says trader Rakesh Godda in Indore although his business suffered due to demonetisation and GST. Godda, however, did not vote for the BJP in the assembly elections. Virendra Sindal of Ujjain says the Modi factor remains intact though not as profound as during the 2014 polls. “People have vented their frustration against local BJP MLAs in the assembly polls and now want to vote for Modi, irrespective of the candidates,” he said. However, a cable operator in Khandwa stated at least 300 women he spoke to said they were not happy with Modi since they had lost their savings during demonetisation.

FARMERS HAPPY
In Khandwa SC constituency, farmers in Mandhata assembly seat, which the Congress won, are happy with the `2 lakh farm loan waiver. Devkaran Yadav of Khutlakala told ET that he has got a the certificate that he would get `1.75 lakh of his loans waived. The Congress is countering what it claims is BJP’s concerted effort to instill doubts on their agrarian scheme, by trying to convince voters that it has already waived `2 lakh loans of each of the 21 lakh farmers. On the Indore-Khandwa road, farmers like Prem Singh Kalgoan Tawa of Kailari says this is one of the fake promises politicians keep making. A BJP leader in Dewas said the party should not have adopted a “negative strategy” to invoke suspicion among farmers on the farm distress tackling initiative. An RSS state functionary told ET in Indore that Mandsaur, the epicentre of farmers’ protest during Chauhan’s rule, voted in favour of the BJP in the Vidhana Sabha elections. BJP won almost all the eight assembly seats of Mandsaur.

CHOICE OF CANDIDATES
The BJP has brought new faces in some of the eight seats to beat antiincumbency against the sitting MPs. Apart from denying ticket to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan because of the unwritten rule of the Modi-Amit-Shah duo not to field leaders above 75 years, the party dropped leaders such as Ujjain’s Prof Chintamani Malviya, Manohar Untwal from Dewas and Nirmala Bhuria from Jhabua-Ratlam. The Congress seems to be comfortable in seats where they have fielded local heavy weights. There is a keen contest in Khandwa, where sitting BJP MP Nandkumar Chouhan is pitted against former Union Congress minister Arun Yadav, and the tribal reserved seat of Jhabua-Ratlam where Congress’ sitting MP Kantilal Bhuria is contesting against BJP’s GS Damor who had defeated Kantilal’s son Vikrant Bhuria from the Jhabua assembly seat in the 2018 polls by a 18,000 margin. The Congress candidate in Dhar is also not pulling his punches on the BJP rival.