Bhopal: The Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) move to put up candidates in 26 of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is a cause of concern for the ruling Congress in Madhya Pradesh.
On Monday, the BSP had announced its decision to contest in these seats, a move viewed by some senior Congress leaders as a pressure tactic.
“The Congress can improve its tally and secure more votes if BSP doesn’t field candidates and supports us. The party may win 16 out of the 29 Lok Sabha seats. But if the BSP is going to field its candidate, Congress may just win 10 -12 seats,” a senior leader who contested in the 2014 elections but lost by a slender margin said.
In 2014, the BSP candidates contested in all the 29 seats with 27 of them losing their deposits.
After the dust of results was settled, at least in But the BSP was then the decisive factor in four seats – Gwalior, Morena, Satna and Rewa.
In these Lok Sabha seats, the winning margin of the candidates was far less than the votes BSP got.
In Gwalior, Lok Sabha constituency, a part of Gwalior Chambal region, the BJP's Narendra Singh Tomar won the seat because the BSP candidate Alok Sharma was able to capture 6.9 per cent votes. These votes sealed the fate of Congress candidate Ashok Singh, who secured 41.9 per cent votes. The margin of defeat was just 3 per cent votes.
The contest in Morena Lok Sabha constituency was between BJP and the BSP. In Morena, the contest was between BJP’s Anoop Mishra, nephew of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the BSP's Brindawan Singh Sikarwar.
Mishra romped home with 44.2 per cent votes against 28.6 per cent votes polled by BSP.
Congress candidate Dr Govind Singh came a poor third.
In Satna, a part of Vindhya region - BSP’s Dharmendra Singh Tiwari sealed the fortune of Congress party’s Ajay Singh, the former leader of opposition in the state assembly and son of senior Congress leader Arjun Singh.
Ajay Singh secured 40.2 per cent votes against BJP’s Ganesh Singh, who secured 41.7 per cent votes. The winning margin was just 1.5 per cent votes while the BSP candidate got 3.8 per cent votes.
Sitting BSP MP Devraj Singh Patel secured 21.4 per cent votes in Rewa, widening the gap between BJP candidate Janardhan Mishra and Congress candidate Sunderlal Tiwari.
The winning margin between the BJP and Congress was more than 20 per cent. BJP’s Mishra secured 46.8 per cent votes, while Tiwari bagged 25.8 per cent votes.
Ever since he was made state Congress chief in June last year ahead of the assembly elections, Kamal Nath had repeatedly asserted that the BSP-Congress coalition was in its final stages. However, the coalition never took off.
The Congress won 114 seats in the assembly elections, but was two short of the simple majority mark of 116 in the 230-member assembly.
The Congress grabbed power with the support of two BSP MLAs, the lone SP legislator and four independents ending the BJP's 15-year reign.
The BSP polled five per cent votes in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.
In the last two months, the BSP supremo has put pressure on the Kamal Nath government.
In January, ahead of Nath government formally launching the Jai Kisan Rin Mukt Yojana (farm loan waiver scheme) as promised by the ruling Congress in its manifesto for the Assembly polls, BSP supremo Mayawati expressed concern on whether the government would waive off loans of farmers who had borrowed from money lenders too.
Kamal Nath responded positively waiving off all loans by farmers.
A month later, the BSP supremo launched a scathing attack on the Congress party after the state government imposed the National Security Act (NSA) against three men accused of cow slaughter.
"Congress govt in MP like BJP,” Mayawati Tweeted.
Getting the BSP’s backing is a key challenge for the Congress government as it is not in a position to bargain.
The state government has now raised reservations for the OBCs to 27 per cent. It is also welcoming senior BSP leaders to the party fold.
Former BSP state president Pradeep Ahirwar, former MP Deoraj Singh Patel and former BSP MLAs Balvir Singh Dandotiya and Satyaprakash Sakarwar have joined the Congress in the last few days.
“The party’s support base in MP is decreasing, party leaders and workers are not happy with Mayawati's style of functioning. Being an MP, I couldn’t talk to her,” alleged Deoraj.
However, BSP state chief Dwarika Prasad Chaudhary dismissed the move as insignificant saying that Ahirwar and other leaders were already expelled from the party in January.
How the BSP factor will come into play will be decided in the coming days.
