Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: Soft Hindutva for divided BJP, Congress’s anti-corruption plank real challenge

New Delhi: The BJP, which lost the 2018 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh to the Kamal Nath-Digvijay Singh-Jyotiraditya Scindia (he was then with the Congress), is making a higher pitch this time. Before the Karnataka assembly elections, it was being said that the BJP high command had planned major changes in the state, but after the humiliating defeat in the southern state, there has been a slight brake on this plan.

However, the final decision of the BJP high command regarding Madhya Pradesh is still awaited as the party is yet to appoint a new chief in the state. Party leaders are anxiously waiting to see who will be given what responsibility in the state. Internal discord in the organization remains a big challenge for the ruling BJP.

Buoyed by Scindia and his loyalist MLAs who joined the BJP, the saffron party retained power in the state in 2020 and Shivraj Singh Chouhan became chief minister, toppling the Congress government. However, more than half of these Scindia supporters are now considering returning to the Congress. Even Scindia supporters have started leaving the BJP. In many seats, a situation of confrontation is being created between the sitting MLA of the Scindia faction and the established old leaders of the BJP.

Although, according to a senior BJP strategist, infighting between party leaders or ticket aspirants is not a major problem, the real challenge for the BJP is the tall promises being made by Kamal Nath and other Congress leaders as these promises and guarantees have helped. Oldest party in Karnataka elections.

The new Congress led by Kamal Nath is different from Digvijay Singh’s Congress. The soft Hindutva attitude of the Congress is also increasing the difficulties of the saffron party.

Priyanka Gandhi recently started her election tour of Madhya Pradesh by worshiping Narmada and made it clear that the Congress high command is also standing with Kamal Nath’s strategy on the issue of soft Hindutva. The way the Congress succeeded in convincing the people of Karnataka about the allegations of corruption against the BJP, on the same lines, it is trying to surround the Shivraj government by raising the issue of corruption in Madhya Pradesh.

However, BJP does not want to lose a big state like Madhya Pradesh under any circumstances. That’s why Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President JP Nadda are going to exert their full power in the state. The BJP will try to create an electoral atmosphere in its favor in the state on the basis of its most popular face – Prime Minister Modi.

Apart from this, Shah will play a big role in finalizing the election strategy and selecting candidates, while Nadda will try to create coordination among all the senior leaders of the state. Chief Minister Chouhan had recently come to Delhi and shared complete information about the political situation in the state with Amit Shah.

It is being said that during the meeting, Shah gave several important instructions to Chauhan in view of the assembly elections. The BJP has won three consecutive assembly elections in the state in 2003, 2008 and 2013. But in the last election held in 2018, the Congress had thrown the BJP out of power.

In 2018, the Congress had given a big political blow to the BJP by winning 114 out of the total 230 seats by forming a government with other parties.
After losing the election, the BJP made Chauhan the national vice-president of the party. But after 15 months, the Kamal Nath-led Congress government fell due to the rebellion of Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22 of his loyal MLAs. Seeing the then political situation, the BJP high command sent Chouhan back to Bhopal and made him the chief minister.

However, along with this, the saffron party has also been making sporadic changes in the state. On 15 February 2020, a month before Kamal Nath was ousted in March 2020, the BJP had appointed Lok Sabha MP Vishnu Dutt Sharma as the state president of the party, whose three-year term has ended and now the search for a new state president is on. Is.

Last year in March 2022, the BJP made a major change in the party’s state organization and appointed Hitanand Sharma as the new general secretary (organisation) of the state BJP, sending Suhas Bhagat back to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.