BJP retains power in Madhya Pradesh

New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh voters showed once again that they have patience in abundance when it comes to voting.

They waited patiently for 10 years for the Digvijay Singh-led Congress government before voting it out in 2003 and gave a fresh mandate to the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, despite its lacklustre performance during the past five years.

Incidentally, it was the voters of Madhya Pradesh who set a new yardstick five years ago by voting on the name of lack of development. Development since then has become the buzzword in Indian politics.

House divided

While the BJP is officially out thanking the Madhya Pradesh voters, it has reasons to extend the same courtesy to the Congress, since it went to polls as a house divided and ended up handing over power to BJP by default, even when it has failed to deliver on the promised development front.

"We failed to convert the visible anti-incumbency into votes and we are sorry for that," said Digvijay Singh, now a national general secretary of the Congress.

Interestingly, BJP's ploy to have three chief ministers in Madhya Pradesh in the last five years seems to have helped it in a way. Incumbent chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, many feel, received a benefit since he has been in the chair for just three years. Given his image of a honest leader, the voters preferred to give him another chance to show positive results.

While BJP projected Chouhan as its chief ministerial candidate and all its central and state leaders rallied behind him, the Congress failed to project anyone as its chief ministerial candidate. Officially, the Congress line was that it does not project anyone for the post since it is prerogative of the lawmakers to elect their leader.

However, unlike Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, where despite not projecting anyone as chief ministerial candidates, voters knew who the chief minister would be if they votes for the Congress party, there was no clarity in Madhya Pradesh.

Federal Minister Kamal Nath confined himself to just the Mahakaushal region, while Jyotiraditya Scindia preferred working just in the Chambal region besides in and around his hometown, Gwalior. Digvijay Singh made few appearances and it was left to the state unit chief, Suresh Pachouri, with lots of responsibility and no help.

The indirect help he was expecting in the form former chief minister Uma Bharti also did not come along. Bharti had fielded 216 candidates and 213 of them, including herself were on the verge of losing. She failed to split the anti-BJP, anti-incumbency votes. On the other hand, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party split the anti-BJP votes, helping BJP emerge the winner, albeit by default.

Femme fatale: Bharati loses out

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Bhartiya Jan Shakti (BJS) party's founder president Uma Bharti on Monday lost the Tikamgarh seat, her home turf.

Yadvendra Singh Bundela of the Congress trounced her with a margin of more than 3,000 votes as the votes were counted for the assembly elections held on November 27.

Uma Bharti, a firebrand leader who had to quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had maintained that her aim was not the victory of her party but to defeat the incumbent BJP government.

Barely two days ago, she had told mediapersons in Tikamgarh that if she does not succeed in her mission, then she will give up politics for good and go to Kedarnath.

She had said she would quit politics if BJP won in Madhya Pradesh.

While Uma Bharti was not available for comments on the result, Prahlad Patel, once her most trusted lieutenant, said: "It wasdisgusting that the BJP joined hands with the Congress to defeat Uma Bharti."

The BJS, floated about two and a half years ago, had fielded 215 candidates for the 230-seat state assembly.

- IANS