Till Sunday, the BJP had a smooth ride in Madhya Pradesh. But prime minister Manmohan Singh rattled the saffron bandwagon on Monday.
Singh launches attack on the state govt for having accommodated corrupt candidates
BHOPAL: Till Sunday, the BJP had a smooth ride in Madhya Pradesh. But prime minister Manmohan Singh rattled the saffron bandwagon on Monday. Singh gave a shot in the arm to the sagging Congress campaign in the state on Monday when he hit out at the corrupt ministers of the BJP government. Now, the BJP appears to be on the back foot as it wraps up one of its best-ever poll campaigns. Campaigning here ends on Tuesday.
The BJP has been ahead of the Congress in its political attacks during the fortnight-long campaign. But the PM - not known to be a hardcore politician - pricked the Shivraj Singh-led campaign which was hitherto exposing Congress threadbare. The Congressmen appeared complete clueless so far.
Faction-ridden Congress was completely divided on the election issues. Corruption as a poll issue was on the sidelines in MP so far, as the BJP had aggressively made “development” its plank. Congress leaders, barring Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath, did not touch the issue at all. Singh, however, has brought the focus back on corruption in MP and tried to turn tables on the BJP.
Now, the BJP is finding it difficult to justify the presence of corrupt ministers in the poll ring.
The prime minister addressed just one meeting near Indore on Sunday but the turnout has been the biggest so far. Close to 1lakh people thronged to hear Singh who said huge funds sent from Delhi had been misused by the state government. He went on to the extent of exhorting people to use the RTI Act to unearth financial bungling in funds for tribal development.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan emerged as the star campaigner in MP but with PM attacking him, the Congress is clearly on the upswing, though a little late.
Singh said the CM and his ministers were facing Lokayukta inquiry and therefore should not be given a second chance. The Congress, he said, would provide a “clean government”.
The BJP entered the fray carrying the baggage of large number of tainted ministers. A large section of the leadership was in favour of sidelining the tainted ministers to win back the elections. When the ticket was being distributed early this month, it was expected that the BJP leadership would deny tickets to some of its corrupt ministers but ultimately the party had to give in.
abhilash@bhaskarnet.com 
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