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Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008
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National

Campaigning ends in Madhya Pradesh

Vinay Kumar

BHOPAL: Campaigning for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections ended on Tuesday evening. While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that it would retain power, the Opposition Congress said it would form the government in the State after having lost to the BJP in the 2003 polls.

The November 27 election will be held in 230 Assembly constituencies, spread over 50 districts, where 3.60 crore voters will exercise their franchise. About 3,179 candidates are in fray.

Prominent candidates

Short Message Service (SMS) has emerged as a favourite medium of the parties to reach out to voters. The BJP, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party have put up 228 candidates each. Both the BJP and the Congress are facing rebel candidates.

Prominent candidates include two former Chief Ministers Babulal Gaur (BJP) and Uma Bharti (Bharatiya Jan Shakti Party), Jamuna Devi (Leader of the Opposition Congress), Subhash Yadav (Congress), Kailash Vijayvargiya, Anoop Mishra and Narottam Mishra (all BJP) and Ajay Singh, son of Union Minister Arjun Singh (Congress). Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, christened as the captain of the State BJP, is seeking to return to power from the Budhni constituency.

In Bhopal, there are seven constituencies — North, Narela, Southwest, Central, Govindpura, Huzoor and Bairasia — where 97 candidates, including Mr. Gaur who has won the Govindpura seat for the last eight times, are trying their luck. In Bhopal, the Congress has fielded two Muslim candidates — Nasir Islam (Central) and Arif Aqeel (North). Officials have made adequate security arrangements for peaceful polling at 1,354 booths in Bhopal. The police have stepped up checking of vehicles and sealed borders of the city.

Among the BJP candidates are seven MPs, two former MPs, 21 former MLAs and 103 sitting MLAs. The party has nominated 23 women candidates. Besides the BJP and the Congress, the presence of Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the BJSP has made the electoral tussle interesting.

The Congress witnessed some aggressive, high-voltage campaigning by the party president Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who sought to take the fight to the BJP camp by highlighting corruption and the alleged failure of the State government to implement Central schemes.

On the last day of campaigning, Mr. Gandhi addressed three meetings at Morena, Shahdol and Bhopal, attacking the BJP government. The BJP mounted the offensive by holding nearly three dozen election meetings of its leaders across the State.

BJP’s agenda

BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi have not shied away from playing the Hindutva card, indicating that the party was again returning to its favourite agenda during the election time. They have raised the issue of alleged ill-treatment of Sadhvi Pragnya Singh, accused in the Malegaon blast case, by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad.

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