Curtains down on MP polls campaign: When election rhetoric overpowered the burning issues

The high-pitched campaign for Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections came to an end on Monday. With opinion polls suggesting a nail-biting finish, both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress have left no stone unturned to infiltrate into each other's bastions while holding on to their traditional voter base.

230 assembly seats of the state will go to polls on November 28. 

While the Congress is going all out to wrest power from the BJP, which has ruled the state for 15 years, a win for the saffron party is equally important in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year. 

Despite negative publicity due to Vyapam scam and police firing at farmers during the strike last year, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has been in the seat for 13 years, is still popular among the voters. Opinion polls have suggested that the Congress is likely to gain some seats but not enough to stop the BJP from returning to power for the fourth term. 

Here are some salient features of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections 2018: 

• 2,907 candidates are in the fray for 230 assembly seats.
• BJP has fielded candidates on all 230 seats.
• The Congress is contesting on 229 seats and has left one seat for the Sharad Yadav-led Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). 
• In the last 2013 assembly elections, of the total 230 seats, the BJP had won 165 seats, Congress 58, BSP four and independents three.
• As per the final electoral rolls, Madhya Pradesh has 5,04,95,251 voters, including 2,63,01,300 males, 2,41,30,390 females and 1,389 third gender voters. There are also 62,172 voters who can exercise their franchise through postal ballots.

Campaign this year

Both the ruling BJP and its arch-rival Congress have led an intense campaign to storm the traditional bastions and family pocket-boroughs of each other. Besides major rallies of national figures like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, locals leaders have also conducted smaller rallies and door-to-door campaign. 

Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Congress MP from Guna-Shivpuri seat and party's campaign committee in charge, and the party's state unit president Kamal Nath have crisscrossed Madhya Pradesh to campaign for the party candidates. Scindia held over 40 rallies in and around his parliamentary constituency to ensure maximum assembly seats for his party candidates. Kamal Nath is concentrating to win all seven seats under his Chhindwara parliamentary constituency where the BJP won four seats in the last assembly polls.

Chouhan, after filing nomination from home seat Budhni, had announced that he would not need to visit his constituency as people would ensure his victory. However, after the Congress nominated former Union Minister Arun Yadav against him, BJP leaders admit that campaign had to be stepped up.

The poll campaign in the central Indian state has not been bereft of controversies with personal attacks flying thick and fast from both sides. While a leaked video of Kamal Nath seeking Muslim votes put him in a spot, a BJP candidate's purported admission that people were not coming to Modi's really caused the party an embarrassment. 

There has been no dearth of allegations and counter-allegations from both sides, which only drowned out the real issues. While the campaign began with the Congress trying to cash in the anti-incumbency by raising Vyapam scam, unemployment and farmers distress; the real issues were dominated by rhetoric in the later stages of the campaigning. 

While the Congress alleged the Shivraj government's failure on major issues, the BJP has highlighted its achievements in the last 15 years of its rule. 

Agrarian crisis

While several protests by farmers across have rocked the country in the last few years, the massive agitation in Madhya Pradesh last year was one of the biggest. Six farmers were killed in police firing in Mandsaur on June 6 when a protest turned violent in the western Madhya Pradesh district. Madhya Pradesh boasts of 18% agricultural growth in the last five years -- the highest in the country - but the state also has the fourth highest farmers’ suicide rate in the country. According to a reply in the Lok Sabha, Madhya Pradesh recorded 599 farmers' suicide in 2016, behind Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana. 

Madhya Pradesh has won Krishi Karman Award of the Centre for five successive years for high agricultural growth but anger among the farmers has shown that the growth has not really translated into their contentment.

Last year's agitation, seeking debt waiver and better prices, began on June 1 and took a violent turn when six persons were killed in the police firing in Mandsaur. 

Both parties have promised sops to farmers in their respective manifestoes. 

Unemployment 

Unemployment was also among the issues that were raised by the parties in the election campaign. While the Congress also promised a “salary grant” of Rs 10,000 per job to the industries offering employment to the youth of the state, the BJP vowed to create 10 lakh jobs per year.

Congress leaders alleged that the BJP failed to provide employment to youths, also raking up Prime Minister Modi’s 2 crore jobs a year promise, the BJP said it launched various schemes to create jobs in the state. 

Vyapam scam 

Two years ago, the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, popularly known by the acronym Vyapam (Vyavasayik Pareeksha Mandal), was at the centre of a massive recruitment scandal involving politicians and bureaucrats. The board conducted recruitment exams for government jobs and entrance exams for admission into professional courses in medicine, engineering and others.

With the death of several accused and witnesses- toll crossing 50- the opposition Congress also alleged a cover-up. While the probe into the alleged scam is being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Congress again levelled corruption allegations against the BJP leaders. 

In its manifesto, the Congress even promised to disband the Vyapam and refund the examination fees of the lakhs of youth who had appeared for the recruitment tests conducted by the scam-hit board in the last 10 years. The opposition party has said it would disband the board if it comes to power in the state and replace it with a "Rajya Karmachari Chayan Aayog" to ensure transparent recruitments and a corruption-free system.

SC/ST Act 

Massive protests erupted in the country earlier this year after the Supreme Court, in an order passed in March, diluted the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act saying police must conduct a preliminary investigation before arresting the accused. After criticism by various groups, including their own allies, the BJP govt at the Centre filed a review in the apex court. 

Later on August 9, the Parliament passed a bill to overturn a Supreme Court order. The move triggered a backlash from the upper caste groups. After protests by right-wing groups, Chouhan announced that “MP will not allow misuse of the SC/ST Act, no one will be arrested without an investigation.”

The government’s move was criticised by the Congress and has used the issue to mobilise Dalit voters.

(With PTI inputs)