The Hindu : Bumpy roads overturn Digvijay

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 07, 2003

Opinion

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Bumpy roads overturn Digvijay

The BJP subtly kept aside its Hindutva agenda and built its entire election campaign around the issue of development in Madhya Pradesh, Says Lalit Shastri.

THE VERDICT against the Congress in Madhya Pradesh cuts across the urban-rural-tribal-Dalit segments. This despite the outgoing Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh's much-hyped Dalit agenda and "freebies" in the form of agricultural land to landless Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families and waiver of farmers' electricity dues.

The party's rout is total — from 127 seats in a House of 230, its tally has dropped to 38. The BJP in contrast swept 173 seats this time against 82 in the previous House. The third force could register only a marginal presence in the State and what is even more significant is that the Bahujan Samaj Party could win just two of the 160 seats it contested.

The State Congress leaders, who are practically settled in Delhi, made virtually no impact — their nominees and dozens of other State Ministers got annihilated in the urban as well as the rural areas.

The outgoing Chief Minister said his party's debacle was due to the winds of change and the anti-incumbency factor. Charges of corruption also took the shine off the Government's initiatives in local self-governance and self-help initiatives in primary education, health, sanitation, watershed management and literacy.

The BJP subtly kept aside its Hindutva agenda and built its entire election campaign around the issue of development, accusing the Digvijay Government of pushing the State to the brink of disaster by neglecting the economic infrastructure. The distribution of charnoi (grazing) land to the landless resulted in serious rifts at the village level. The BJP must have also struck a chord among farmers who were suffering due to three years of prolonged drought across the State. The Digvijay Government's last minute decision to waive farmers' electricity dues backfired as the Election Commission intervened and the bills were sent to the ryots.

The farmers were also angry over the state of the roads, so essential for transporting farm produce to the wholesale markets. In the urban areas too, the people were agitated over the poor condition of roads and highways. Most of the middle-income group, salaried class and students were also upset about the frequent power cuts and the steep hike in electricity tariffs.

The Congress Government also came under attack from those in business and industry due to the power crisis, cumbersome sales tax related procedures and the revival of the toll barriers.

It was against this backdrop that the BJP fielded its firebrand leader, Uma Bharti. Her determined and sustained campaign was backed by the Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, who deserves credit for building development up as the main election issue in Madhya Pradesh. There was also a huge line-up of BJP leaders involved in the election campaign. The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's election rallies were a big draw. In sharp contrast, the Congress campaign lacked popular appeal and fewer people came to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's public meetings.

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Bumpy roads overturn Digvijay