Bhopal: With a sizable support base in regions such as Vindhya and Gwalior-Chambal, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which never really could emerge as the third force in Madhya Pradesh politics, will be an important player in the upcoming bypolls, particularly in the 16 assembly seats in the Gwalior-Chambal region which holds the key to power in the central Indian state.
In the 2018 assembly polls — the closest poll contest ever in Madhya Pradesh — Congress inched ahead of the BJP despite polling 0.13% less votes in the elections and it was primarily because the BSP, which secured 5% votes, that the BJP lost power in the state.
Although the BSP’s vote share had declined only by 1.3% compared to in 2013, and the party won only two seats (Patharia and Bhind), it played a key role in deciding the outcome of the polls.
As the mainstream political rivals lock horns once again for the bypolls, the BSP is again present in the arena to make things interesting. The party has already announced eight candidates in Gwalior-Chambal and is planning to contest on all 28 seats, contrary to its earlier stand of avoiding participation in the bypolls.
The BJP had suffered a massive setback in Gwalior-Chambal region which was impacted by upper caste agitation against Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s pro-quota remarks and also from a violet stir over the SC/ST act.
The BSP, which finished on the third spot behind Congress and BJP in 2018, had embarrassed the BJP when it pushed the party to the third spot in Joura and Ambah seats. Advocate Satyaprakash Sakhwar, who finished at the fourth place as BSP candidate, has now joined Congress and is a candidate from the grand old party on the same seat.
The BSP candidate (20% votes) had contributed to the BJP’s defeat in Sumawali, while defeat margin for the BJP was 8.99 % votes. The BSP candidate Pragilal Jatav had secured 23% votes at Karera. Jatav has also joined the Congress is a candidate from the seat in byelection.
At Morena as well, former minister Rustam Singh had tasted defeat with a margin of 13.79% votes while the BSP’s Balveer Singh Dandotia had secured 13.99% votes, slightly more than the loss margin for the exMinister of BJP.
To add, Jatav has recently joined the Congress party and has been offered ticket from the same constituency. At Gohad, where the Congress candidate Ranveer Jatav had won, BSP candidate Dr Jagdish Sagar, best known as the mastermind of Vyapam scam, had secured 11.94% votes and finished third.
At Pohari, the INC candidate Suresh Dhakad had defeated his counterpart from the BJP –Kailash Kumar, by mere 4.84% votes and the BSP candidate, Prahlad had secured 22.77% votes finishing third.
At Ashoknagar as well, the BJP was undone by the BSP presence as Congress’ Jajpal Jajji won the seat defeating BJP candidate Ladduram Kori by 7.02% votes while the BSP candidate Bal Krishna had garnered 6.90 % votes.
Despite these numbers from the last elections, when BSP MLA Rambai Singh on Wednesday announced that the party would contest all 28 seats, the decision came as a surprise to many. “We are contesting all the 28 seats and I want to urge the public to help BSP win these 28 seats and help us form government, then I will let everyone know how the government is run,” Singh said.
Right ahead of by-polls, Singh also backed the Kamal Nath government saying she won’t lie on farm loan waiver as loans of farmers were written off, even in her assembly constituency.
Jatavs, a scheduled caste covered in the reserved category, has a sizable say on several seats in the region, including in Morena where the caste has a population of around 2.5 lakh. In all, the category has around six lakh voters.
The BSP had extended support to Kamal Nath government in year 2018 with two MLAs.
The Congress has announced candidates on 24 seats, BSP on eight and the BJP is yet to announce the official list of candidates. The party is almost sure to field those who had deserted Congress and joined BJP after resigning from the assembly.
A total of 28 assembly seats (25 over resignations and three over the demise of lawmakers) are going to bypolls in Madhya Pradesh on November 3. Results will be announced on November 10. With both the BJP and Congress short of majority in Assembly, the outcome of these polls is expected to decide who will rule the state for the next three years.
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