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| HOME | NEWS | ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS '98 | REPORT | |||
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November 28, 1998
ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
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Congress wins majority in MPAn exit poll had predicted a victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Madhya Pradesh, but on Sunday, it was the Congress that emerged triumphant. With all but 17 results to the 320-member assembly declared, the ruling Congress party had won 164 seats and is comfortably ahead in nine others. The BJP is a distant second with 114 seats and likely to end up with 119 MLAs, far short of the exit poll's projections. The Bahujan Samaj Party has won 11 seats, matching its strength in the outgoing assembly. It is comfortably ahead in two other seats. Independents and other parties have emerged victorious in 14 constituencies. An Independent is leading in one seat. Several top BJP leaders, including former chief minister Kailash Joshi and Vikram Verma, leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, were humbled at the hustings. After winning 220 assembly constituencies in February's general election, most of the party's traditional strongholds fell to the Congress. The BJP could win only 45 per cent of the seats in Chhattisgarh (where it expected to win most of the region's 90 seats), 35 per cent of the seats in Madhya Bharat and 43 per cent of the seats in the Mahakaushal region. Only in the Gwalior and Vindyachal regions did the BJP do better than the Congress. In Chhattisgarh, the Congress secured 46 of the 90 seats while the BJP was far behind with 33 seats. The Congress captured 124 of the 230 at stake outside the Chhattisgarh region as against the BJP's 103. Old Bhopal was the only region in the state where the BJP secured better results. The BJP won eight of the 12 seats in the state capital and its adjoining areas. The Congress won four, wresting two pretigious seats -- Bhopal North and Bhopal South -- from the BJP. The region-wise break-up shows that the Congress won 58 of the total 99 seats in the Madhya Bharat region, against 33 by the BJP, six by the Bahujan Samaj Party and two by others. In the Mahakaushal region, the ruling Congress bagged 45 of the total 76 seats at stake. The BSP failed to open its account in the region. The Congress captured 17 of the 43 seats in the Vindhya region, against 15 by the BJP. Just two per cent of the vote separated the BJP from the Congress -- 41 to 39 per cent -- but in Madhya Pradesh, a one per cent swing is enough to ensure victory. The Congress required 161 seats to retain control of the 320-member assembly. Having passed that mark on its own, the Congress will have no need for the BSP and Independents who could have emerged as power-brokers had the party failed to win 161 seats. Chief Minister Digvijay Singh had forcefully argued against an alliance with the BSP, proposed by his adversaries in the party like Arjun Singh and Madhavrao Scindia, both of whom saw reverses this time in their chosen areas of influence, Vindyachal and Gwalior respectively. Having won 55 per cent of the seats in Chhattisgarh, which is eligible for statehood shortly, the Congress will form a governments not only in Bhopal, but also in Raipur, the prospective capital of the new state. Ironically, the BJP's slogan this election was 'one vote, two governments.' The BJP's dismal performance is a setback to party president Shashikant 'Kushabhau' Thakre and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, both of whom belong to the state. The anti-incumbency factor, which the BJP was counting on heavily, did not work in the state. This, political analysts feel, is because the Congress negated it by refusing tickets to many sitting MLAs who did not have a 'positive image'. The BJP, on the other hand, awarded tickets to many of its sitting MLAs -- "this went against us," BJP general secretary Narendra Modi, the man in charge of the party's campaign in MP, told a television interviewer on Saturday night. Says Congress spokesperson Ajit Jogi, himself an MP from MP, "We decided tickets would be given only to good candidates, to those with a positive image. As a result, we see that the anti-incumbency factor, which hit the BJP in Rajasthan and Delhi, has not affected us here." Asked why the BJP had failed to capitalise on its 'one vote, two governments' slogan -- the promise to create a separate state of Chhattisgarh -- Jogi said, "The voter has realised that as long as the BJP is in power at the Centre, it will not take any step in that direction. Whatever has been done for the creation of Chhattisgarh has been done by the Congress, not the BJP." Another reason, analysts point out, could be that the people had little faith in the promise, despite the reiterations of Vajpayee and Union Home Minister L K Advani. Congress politicians, expectedly, are all for this view. Said Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Salman Khurshid, "The BJP is in power in Uttar Pradesh, but has done nothing for the creation of Uttarakhand. That is one indication the voters would have taken into consideration." A smiling Digvijay Singh, for his part, was confident that he would continue as head of the government. "I am the natural choice," he told one television interviewer. Speaking about a separate Chhattisgarh, he said his government was all for it. "We have done our bit. Now it is up to the government in Delhi." The Congress victory has firmly established Digvijay Singh as the undisputed leader in a state, which has many powerful leaders, Arjun Singh, Kamal Nath, Madhavrao Scindia, Motilal Vora, Shyama Charan Shukla and Vidya Charan Shukla. Having struggled through internal turbulence for much of his first tenure in power, Digvijay Singh may expect more calm this time around.
Additional reportage: UNI |
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