- Congress weak in urban areas
- Influence of tribal community on 80 seats in the state
- About 88 seats fall in urban and semi-urban areas
Milind Muzumdar, Indore
In the last phase of the election campaign, BJP is still facing problems in tribal areas and Congress in urban areas. Two crore tribals of the state have influence on 80 assembly seats, out of which 47 are tribal-reserved seats. Whereas there are 88 assembly seats which fall in urban and semi-urban areas. There are 16 municipal corporations, 125 municipalities and about 330 Nagar Panchayats in the state. While BJP is continuously organizing meetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the tribal areas, Congress is organizing meetings and road shows of Priyanka Gandhi and Kamal Nath to reach out to the urban areas.
It is a known fact that at the national level, Priyanka Gandhi is more popular among the urban middle class than Rahul Gandhi. Similarly, among the leaders of the state, Kamal Nath’s appeal among the urban middle class is more than any other Congress leader. BJP has always benefited from urban seats. BJP has been getting up to 60 percent seats from cities in the last five elections. On the other hand, except for the 2003 and 2013 assembly elections, Congress has been ahead of BJP in tribal areas. BJP has worked on a strategy to reach out to the tribal areas. Such leaders and workers have been called from across the country who have seen election management in tribal areas. Especially workers from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Jharkhand have been deployed in Madhya Pradesh. After the elections in Chhattisgarh, the leaders and workers there will also be fielded on the assembly seats of Madhya Pradesh adjoining Chhattisgarh.
BJP strategists have realized that 80 seats in tribal areas still remain a problem for the party. Especially tribal dominated districts like Balaghat, Mandla, Shahdol, Sidhi, Barwani, Khargone, Alirajpur, Jhabua and Dhar remain a problem for the party. A special strategy is being worked on here. Efforts have also been made to deploy field workers of Sangh Parivar in this area.
Keeping this in view, BJP has recently organized one program after another for the tribals. There was a meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ratlam on Saturday. BJP had mobilized a large number of tribal communities from rural areas here. BJP has been running a campaign to woo the tribals at the national level, which is being led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. The effect of this campaign is that BJP got unilateral success in tribal seats in Gujarat. Sources say that in the last phase of the election campaign, there will be visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Vindhya, Mahakaushal and Malwa Nimar, so that the tribal community can turn towards BJP.
Focus Increases
BJP has further increased its focus on tribals. The 2 crore tribals of the state are considered the key to power. The government of the party in whose favor the tribal community votes is formed in the state. One third of the population in Madhya Pradesh is tribal. For whom 47 assembly seats are reserved, but the tribal community affects 80 assembly seats.
