Indian state polls: It’s now or never for Congress to wrest power from Narendra Modi
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Modi holds forth on Gandhi’s 'dada, dadi' and Congress hits back with petty insults
As the big fight of 2019 dawns, there are bellwether assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the Hindi heartland. Telangana and Mizoram will also be important pointers to who will rule Delhi.
Sensing huge anti-incumbency in Rajasthan against the Vasundra Raje-led government in a bi-polar polity, the Congress has patched up internal divisions between the young, hard-working and charismatic state chief Sachin Pilot and erstwhile Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Both want to be chief minister, but both being canny politicians sense that that fight can wait. Pilot, a second generation heirloom politician, has proved his detractors wrong by staying put in Rajasthan and putting the Raje government on the mat.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders say Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, who have serious differences with Raje, not finding her deferential enough, may not be too unhappy if Raje loses.
And, this is the biggest trend of these important assembly polls.
The BJP is assiduously ensuring that if they lose in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the loss will be attributed to the local leadership of Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Raje, not the party’s über campaigner Modi.
This message has been the main headline management of the BJP. The idea being that Modi and Shah cannot be responsible for any loss.
Madhya Pradesh is another state where Chauhan, fondly called “mamaji” (uncle), has ruled for 13 years. It is voting today and gives the best chance to the Congress to make a comeback in a heartland state. Madhya Pradesh has huge issues of agrarian distress and the massive Vyapam scam and yet there is anti-incumbency against the BJP, but not the affable Chauhan.
Congress satraps, Jyotiraditya Scindia, the state chief 71-year-old Kamalnath and former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh have tried to present a united front, but it’s been patchy. Scindia, who has put his all in the campaign forsaking Delhi and canvassing across the state, says: “It is now or never for the Congress.”
Equally committed is Kamalnath who sees this as his last chance to become chief minister. The nine-term Member of Parliament from Chindwara has been visible along with Scindia in Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s temple run across the state as the Congress campaigns on a Hindu lite or MeToo Hindutva issues.
Digvijaya Singh has in an interview to me ruled himself out of the chief minister stakes, but his supporters know of his visceral antipathy to “Maharaj” as Scindia is known. Will the decision not to tie up with Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) cost the congress in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh? The answer will be known on December 11 when the results will be out.
If the Congress wins Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and puts up a decent showing in Chattisgarh, it will be Gandhi’s first emphatic win after taking over as Congress president. It will raise his profile to finally have a win in his curriculum vitae currently riddled with defeats. Gandhi and the Congress will appear more attractive to putative allies. Three wins will also give him bargaining power with fractious allies such as Mamata Banerjee and Sharad Pawar. In Uttar Pradesh, the two regional heavyweights Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav may concede the Congress a seat at the high table.
Conversely, for Modi and Shah, a defeat in the three assemblies may not mean much. Despite Modi’s presidential style, he has limited his rallies in all these states. And, as for Chauhan, if he wins a fourth term, he will emerge as a rival. That is something Modi and Shah don’t want.
The Congress is fighting to keep Mizoram its last bastion in the northeast.
So with the economy in a downward spiral, the contentious GST roll out, a huge jobs crisis and agrarian distress are these the issues the parties are focusing on?
Not a bit. It’s the endless low level of campaign, with Modi holding forth on Gandhi’s “dada, dadi” (grandfather, grandmother) and Congress leaders hitting back with petty insults. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken the cake of polarity when he said the Madhya Pradesh elections were about “Ali versus Bajrangbali”
And, can an Indian election happen without EVM glitches. No, as we saw today in Madhya Pradesh. The Election Commission needs to get its act together because such glitches are not good as they caste a doubt on democracy.
Congress pits Jaswant’s son against Raje in Rajasthan
Congress is fielding both its chief ministerial aspirants — Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot
New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday released its second list of candidates for the Rajasthan Assembly polls, pitting Manvendra Singh, the son of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran and former Union Minister Jaswant Singh, against Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in her traditional Jhalrapatan seat.
Former BJP MLA Manvendra Singh, who recently joined the Congress, is among the 32 candidates announced by the party on the day.
Jhalrapatan in Jhalawar district has consistently elected Raje to the assembly since 2003.
Manvendra Singh who represented Sheo constituency in Barmer, quit the state’s ruling BJP in September, upset over the sidelining of his father in the party ever since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections
The Congress, in its first list of 152 candidates, released on November 16, fielded both its chief ministerial aspirants — Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot.
While two-time chief minister Gehlot is contesting from his traditional Sardarpura seat, Pilot is in the fray from Tonk.
The party has also fielded former Union Ministers C.P. Joshi and Girija Vyas for the Nathdwara and Udaipur Assembly seats.
Polls for the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will be held on December 7 and the results will be declared on December 11.
Rebuked by Rahul Gandhi, Joshi apologises for casteist comment
Congress veteran had said only Brahmins can speak about Hinduism, not Modi or Uma Bharti
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New Delhi: Veteran Congress leader C.P. Joshi was on Friday asked to apologise by party chief Rahul Gandhi for his controversial comment that “only Brahmins know enough to talk about Hinduism,” directly targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Gandhi slammed Joshi’s remarks as “casteist” and asked him to express regret.
Joshi had reportedly said that Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti and Hindu activist Sadhvi Ritambhara belonged to lower castes and thus knew nothing of Hinduism.
“Uma Bharti is a Lodhi, and she talks about Hinduism, Modi talks about Hinduism. It is only Brahmins who don’t talk about it. The country is being misled. Religion and governance are two different things. Everyone has the right to practice their religion but it is only the Brahmins who are learned and know of Hinduism,” Joshi had said while addressing a public gathering in Rajasthan on Thursday.
He further alleged that BJP leaders behaved as if they were authority on Hinduism.
“They say a Congress person can’t be a Hindu, who gave them the authority to issue certificates? Have they opened a university? If anyone knows about religion then its Brahmins. BJP is just misguiding the people by such moves,” Joshi had remarked.
Reacting to this, Gandhi said that Joshi’s statement was against the ideals of Congress party.
“Our party leaders should not give any statement that hurts any section of the society. I am sure Joshi ji will realise his mistake, keeping the party’s principles in mind. His remark is contrary to Congress party’s ideals. He should express regret over his remarks,” Gandhi said on Twitter.
Joshi, a prominent Brahmin face of Congress, later accused BJP of twisting his statement and condemned its “fabricated use.”
“I strongly condemn the fabricated use of my statement by BJP. I did not mean to offend anyone,” he tweeted.
However, he later apologised for his comment in a tweet.
“Out of respect for the Congress beliefs and workers’ sentiments, I apologise if my comments hurt any section of the society,” he tweeted hours later.
Joshi is contesting the legislative assembly election from Nathdwara district of Rajasthan. Polls for Rajasthan assembly will be held on December seven.
Meanwhile, BJP legislator Harsh Sanghavi said the statement made by Joshi “was shameful, to say the least.”
“Shameful statement by Congress Leader C.P. Joshi! It implies [he is asking] what does a lower caste person like Prime Minister Narendra Modi know about Hinduism as only Brahmins are true custodians of Hinduism,” Sanghavi said on Friday.
A day earlier, Joshi had claimed that only a Congress PM can build the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.
“It was late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who opened the lock of the Babri mosque premises and allowed religious rites inside the disputed structure at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. Thus only a Congress PM can get the temple built,” he said.
Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram to vote on Wednesday
BJP seeks fourth successive term in Madhya Pradesh, Congress third in Mizoram
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Bhopal/Aizawl: Madhya Pradesh will vote on Wednesday to either give the BJP a fourth successive term in power notwithstanding anti-incumbency or give a chance to the challenger Congress to break the saffron party’s monopoly over power for the last 15 years.
Similarly, voters in Mizoram will also exercise their franchise on Wednesday to elect a new Assembly in which the Congress is striving for a third successive term against a stiff challenge from the Mizo National Front headed by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga.
Mizoram, one of the four states where the Congress is in power at present besides Punjab and the union territory of Puducherry and part of a coalition in Karnataka, is the last remaining bastion for Congress in the northeast.
The campaign has been high decibel, often marked by bitter personal attacks, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi leading the charge of their parties.
In Madhya Pradesh, the contest is mainly between the BJP and Congress though the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party are also in the fray.
Apart from Modi’s appeal, the BJP is banking on the image of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and its organisational structure. Party President Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley campaigned in the state.
The Congress put up a spirited fight by raising issues concerning people and putting up a united fight by keeping the issue of leadership at bay.
Rahul Gandhi sought to rejuvenate the state unit by appointing Kamal Nath as the party chief in April this year and naming Jyotiraditya Scindia, MP, as the campaign chief.
Congress leaders have sought to highlight the problems of farmers, the poor, middle class and youths in their rallies holding, especially holding demonetisation and GST as the reasons for the agrarian distress and traders’ plight.
Rahul Gandhi attacked Modi and his government on issues of corruption and promises made in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and by Shivraj Chauhan in the 2013 elections. He has promised a farm loan waiver within 10 days of Congress coming power.
National issues like surgical strike, construction of Ram temple, caste and dynasty were raised with the campaign barely revolving around the issue the development.
Modi attacked the Congress on corruption, dynasty politics and several other issues and gave accounts of the achievements of the state and his own government.
Among the 2,907 candidates in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has fielded candidates for all 230 seats while the Congress is contesting in 229 seats leaving one seat, Jatara in Tikamgarh district, for Sharad Yadav-led LJD.
The BSP has fielded 227 candidates and the SP is contesting 51 seats. There are 1,102 independent candidates.
The keenly watched constituency will be Budhni, the home turf of Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The Congress has pitted former Union minister and former Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee chief Arun Yadav against him.
In the last polls, of the 230 seats, the BJP won 165, Congress 58, BSP four and independents three.
Over five crore (50 million) registered voters in Madhya Pradesh — 2,63,01,300 men, 2,41,30,390 women and 1,389 comprising the third gender — will decide the fate of the candidates.
In Mizoram, the fight is largely between the Congress and the Mizo National Front though the BJP is also seeking to make its presence felt. The BJP has made deep inroads in the northeast since the Modi government came to power at the Centre in 2014 and its performance in the Christian majority state will be keenly watched.
In battle for supremacy in the election to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla of the Congress is seeking a hat-trick. He claims there is no incumbency against his government.
A total of 209 candidates are in the fray in Mizoram.
The Congress has fielded 40 candidates while the BJP and MNF are contesting in 39 and 40 constituencies respectively.
The Chief Minister is contesting from two seats — Serchhip and Champhai South. The Congress has been in power since Mizoram became a full-fledged state in 1987, except for 10 years between 1998 to 2008.
Around 7.7 lakh voters will decide the fate of 209 candidates.
Counting of votes in both the states, along with three other states — Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana — will be held on December 11.
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Opinion polls point to victory for Congress in Rajasthan assembly polls
Surveys give Congress almost 50 per cent of vote share in 200-member house
New Delhi: The Congress is likely to unseat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from power in Rajasthan, two opinion polls have predicted in what could be a continuation of the state’s tradition of over two decades of voting out the ruling party.
Surveys carried out by ABP News-CVoter and C fore have given the Congress almost 50 per cent of the vote share and 142 and 124-138 seats respectively in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, with its state president Sachin Pilot leading Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje as the most preferred candidate for the top post.
While the C fore survey is restricted to Rajasthan, the ABP News-CVoter opinion poll has also predicted the outcome of the Assembly elections in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, giving an edge to the Congress in both the states.
The BJP is in power in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for 15 years.
The pre-poll survey has, however, added that a minor swing in both the states can turn the tide in the favour of either of the two main parties due to a very small difference between their projected vote shares.
It has predicted 122 seats for the Congress in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly and 47 seats for the opposition party in the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly. The BJP has been projected to bag 108 and 40 seats in these two states respectively.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had on Saturday expressed confidence that it would register a “record victory” in the upcoming state Assembly elections and retain power in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Senior BJP leader and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said the saffron party would secure a record victory on the basis of its hard work and development measures, besides the performance of its governments in the three states.
In Rajasthan, Pilot leads Raje as the popular choice for the chief minister’s post with 36 per cent voters preferring him, while the latter is the first choice for 27 per cent, according to the ABP News-CVoter poll, which says former chief minister and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot enjoys the backing of 24 per cent voters.
The C fore poll says Pilot, Gehlot and Raje are the first choice of 32, 27 and 23 per cent voters respectively.
However, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his Chhattisgarh counterpart Raman Singh are the first choice of the voters for the hot seat, despite anti-incumbency sentiments against their governments, the ABP News-CVoter poll says.
The Congress and the BJP have been predicted to bag 42.2 and 41.5 per cent votes in Madhya Pradesh and 38.9 and 38.2 per cent votes in Chhattisgarh respectively.
There is, however, a huge gap in the projected vote share of the Congress and the BJP in Rajasthan, with the opposition party being backed by 49.9 per cent voters against the 34.3 per cent share for the ruling dispensation.
The vote share predicted by C fore is 50 and 43 per cent for the Congress and the BJP respectively in Rajasthan.
The BJP had secured power in all the three states in 2013 by winning 165, 142 and 49 seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh respectively as against the 58, 21 and 39 seats of the Congress.
The C fore survey interviewed 5,788 voters in Rajasthan, while the ABP News-CVoter opinion polls had a sample size of 26,196 voters in the three states.
The Election Commission (EC) Saturday announced that the Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana will be held between November 12 and December 7.
While Chhattisgarh will go to the polls in two phases on November 12 and 20, the elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will be held on November 28.
Polling in Rajasthan and Telangana will be held on December 7. Counting of votes will be taken up in all the five states on December 11.
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