The Hindu : Front Page : Strict vigil on sensitive booths in M.P.

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Thursday, Nov 27, 2008
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Strict vigil on sensitive booths in M.P.

Vinay Kumar and K.V. Prasad

3.64 crore electors to decide fate of 3,179 candidates in 230 Assembly constituencies

— Photo: A.M. Faruqui

All set for the vote: Officials off to the polling centres in Bhopal on Wednesday.

BHOPAL: With the din of electioneering dying down, about 3.64 crore electors in Madhya Pradesh are set to exercise their franchise on Thursday to decide the fate of 3,179 candidates in 230 Assembly constituencies. Arrangements have been made to ensure peaceful polling at all booths, numbering 47,213. Police and security personnel have been instructed to keep a strict vigil on “sensitive” booths.

While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is trying hard to attract voters on the plank of development, the Congress has countered it by raising the issue of corruption and the poor law and order situation and by picking holes in the promises made to the people by the BJP in 2003.

The presence of Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, trying to make inroads into Madhya Pradesh on the basis of its social engineering formula adopted in adjoining Uttar Pradesh, and of Uma Bharti’s Bharatiya Jan Shakti Party (BJSP) may queer the main rivals’ pitch.

The BJP, the Congress and the BSP have each fielded 228 candidates and the BJSP has 201 nominees in the fray. Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party is trying its luck in 187 constituencies. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has 12 candidates and the Communist Party of India 21. Two regional parties, the Gondwana Mukti Sena and the Gondwana Gantantra Party, have nominated 95 and 88 candidates. As many as 1,398 independents are also testing the water.

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, BJP chief Rajnath Singh, Ms. Mayawati and Mr. Mulayam Singh campaigned for limited spells, the bulk of the task was left to leaders from the State on either side of the political divide.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan criss-crossed the State to canvass for the BJP as also mount a strong defence of his government, while the Congress charge was led by the former Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh; Union Ministers Kamal Nath and Jyotiradiya Scindia and PCC chief Suresh Pachouri.

In Mr. Digvijay Singh’s assessment, there is a “tremendous anti-incumbency wave” against the BJP government and the Congress is mobilising and converting it into votes. As for the BSP factor, he says that while that party secured 6-8 per cent of the vote last time, this time it all depends. For, it has given ticket to people who were not accommodated by either the Congress or the BJP.

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