- Emphasis of all parties on booth management
Milind Muzumdar, Indore
In the last phase of the election campaign, BJP and Congress have started intensive campaigning and polling center management. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public meeting in Barwani on Monday. He also held a road show in Indore on Tuesday. BJP strategists believe that the party faces the biggest problem in the Nimar region, whereas Congress is looking relatively weak in Malwa.
There are 66 assembly seats in the state’s largest region, Malwa and Nimar region. Of these, there are 29 seats in Ujjain division and 37 seats in the Indore division. Apart from Ujjain division, Malwa region includes Indore district and half of Dhar district. Whereas the remaining part of Indore division is called Nimar zone. Most of the tribal seats in the state are in Nimar. There are only two tribal seats in Malwa region, Bagli and Sardarpur. Whereas there are 20 tribal reserved seats in Nimar. This is the biggest problem for BJP. Jhabua, Alirajpur, Barwani, Dhar and Khargone districts are the weak spots of BJP. Here Congress gets seats in bulk.
On the other hand, BJP continues to dominate 9 assembly seats in Indore district and 29 assembly seats in Ujjain division. Barring the 1985 assembly elections, BJP has been continuously capturing more than half the seats here.
This time also BJP is very strong in these 38 seats. Whereas the performance of Congress in Nimar region has been consistently good except in 2003 and 2013. The election campaign ended on Wednesday evening. Because of this, the emphasis of all parties is now on booth management.
Former RSS preacher Ratnakar took command of the tribal area
Ratnakar, former campaigner of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and state organization general secretary of Gujarat BJP, took charge of tribal seats for BJP in Malwa and Nimar region. He has been in this area for the last twenty days. The state organization general secretary of Gujarat BJP, popularly known as Ratnakar ji, had taken charge of the tribal belt in the 2022 Gujarat elections. Because of him, BJP got an edge in the tribal belt in Gujarat. Alirajpur and Jhabua districts of the state share the border of Gujarat. Panchmahal, Dahod, Godhra and Dang districts in Gujarat are tribal dominated. Bhil tribals are in abundance there also. There is a large Bhil community among the tribals of Nimar region. Ratnakar has been given the responsibility of 22 tribal reserved seats of Indore division. He is going to every assembly constituency and taking meetings of the workers. Sources say that apart from Ratnakar ji from BJP, division in-charge Raghavendra Gautam is also going to devote most of his time to Nimad zone.
