‘Though people are talking about Congress, the RaGa factor is entirely missing’.
Gwalior: The Congress is struggling hard to consolidate its gains made during the Assembly elections in Gwalior, which has traditionally been a bastion of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Voting for Gwalior seat will be held on 12 May.
The area, known for the Gwalior Fort and Tansen tomb, has been represented by stalwarts like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Madhavrao Scindia and Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia. The seat has been with the BJP ever since Madhavrao Scindia decided to shift to Guna in 1999, with a brief exception of 2004 when Congress’ Ramsevak Singh won. However, he was expelled in 2007 after he was found involved in a bribery scam. Madhavrao Scindia won the seat five times on a Congress ticket and defeated Vajpayee by a huge margin of 1.75 lakh votes in 1984.
There are eight Assembly constituencies within the Gwalior Parliamentary constituency—Gwalior Rural, Gwalior, Gwalior East, Gwalior South, Bhitarwar, Dabra (SC), Karera (SC) and Pohari. While in 2013, the BJP had five and Congress three, in last year’s Assembly elections, the situation changed with the Congress sweeping in seven, while BJP getting only one. The Congress, thus, faces the challenge to consolidate and carry forward the momentum of Assembly elections in the Chambal region.
Despite gains in the Assembly elections, Congress is grappling with infighting. Though party candidate Ashok Singh, who is into land business, is trying his best to give a tough fight to BJP’s Vivek Shejwalkar, he is not getting full support of Jyotiraditya Scindia, as he is considered to be close to the Digvijaya Singh faction. Scindia, coming from the erstwhile Royal family, enjoys considerable clout in the region. Sources said Scindia wanted to field his wife Priyadarshini Raje from Gwalior, but could not succeed. There is not much excitement among the party workers as Singh has lost elections thrice.
BJP’s Shejwalkar, a two-term Mayor, comes from an RSS background. His father Narayan Krishna Shejwalkar has been a Lok Sabha MP from here twice and also Rajya Sabha MP and was one of the founding members of Jan Sangh and BJP. His father was associated with the erstwhile Royal family of Gwalior and, therefore, enjoyed good rapport with the people. BJP is projecting him as a “sober” person, who can lead the constituency well.
In 2014, the BJP had fielded Narendra Singh Tomar, who became a Union Minister. But this time, he has been sent to neighbouring Morena constituency, which he had represented earlier too. Congress workers say that since Tomar did not do anything for Gwalior during his five-year term, he was “forced to flee”. However, BJP leaders say the party has to take decisions seeing the larger perspective. “He has represented Morena in the past and now the party felt he should be fielded from there again. Therefore, he was sent back to Morena,” a city BJP leader said.
For a large section of people of Gwalior, there appears to be general appreciation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s works in the last five year and they feel he should be given another term. “This is not a municipal election. We have to keep in mind the national interests. Modi is the man who can safeguard national interests, as was displayed through his decision to air strike terror camps in Pakistan. He has the ability to lead the nation. There is no other leader at present who can match his stature,” Santosh Singh, a taxi driver, said.
There is a good cross section of people which feels that business and industries got adversely affected due to demonetisation, but they also say that this was done for something good. Arjun Ram, a tea seller at Kailash Vihar, said: “I think many people were affected because of Modi’s policies. But still 80% of them will vote for him because his intention was good. He did nothing for himself.”
What is interesting in Gwalior is that though there are people who talk about Congress, the Rahul Gandhi factor is completely missing. A local scribe explained: “Even those who are talking about the Congress are not actually a fan of Rahul Gandhi. In the last Assembly elections, they supported Congress not because they liked it, but more because they wanted to teach a lesson to the BJP after the issue of SC/ST Atrocities Act surfaced and there was a perception that the BJP was against forward castes. So it was more of a vote ‘against’ BJP and not ‘for’ Congress. But, in the last 75 days of power in the state, the Congress has not been able carry forward the gains,” he added.
Prof A.P.S. Chouhan, head of political science department, Jivaji University, agrees that the Assembly election vote in MP was “against” BJP and not “for” Congress. “But in the last few days in power, the Congress has tried to build on the gains made during the Assembly election. For example, the Kamal Nath government has started the process of giving loan waiver to farmers. Similarly, the government is reducing the electricity bills. All this will consolidate the Congress support base,” he said.
However, BJP leaders claim that anti-incumbency against the Congress government in MP has started. Manish Rajoria, vice president of SC Morcha of MP BJP, said: “The Congress made so many promises, but failed to implement them. Now there is a feeling among the people that it was a mistake voting Shivraj Singh Chouhan out of power. The Congress has been exposed. Therefore, they will vote for the BJP in large numbers to correct that mistake, in the Lok Sabha election.”
However, Gwalior Congress president Devendra Sharma claimed that 83 announcements which found mention in the party manifesto during the Assembly elections have been completed in just two months of being in power.
“We wanted to do more, but the Model Code of Conduct came into effect. The
process of giving loan waiver to farmers is continuing. As far as Gwalior is concerned, the BJP has been there for the last 20 years, but did nothing for the constituency. Whatever development happened, it was during the tenure of Madhavrao Scindia. Even Tomar, despite being a Union Minister, could not do anything. People of Gwalior now want to bring the Congress back.”