MP Assembly Elections: With Polling Just Two Days Away, Uneasiness in the Saffron Camp

Bhopal: The din of electioneering died down as the sun set on November 26, but a strange fear seems to have seized the saffron camp as if they are fighting a lost battle.

Their ministers and MLAs have already incurred the public’s wrath during the election campaign. Finding no way out, the BJP has now gone back to its mother organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for help, and using muscle power against the opponents.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was spotted visiting the RSS in Bhopal on the midnight of November 23 to have a dialogue with their bosses on how to handle the crisis caused by the failure of his government and rebellion within the party.

Let us have a look at how BJP has resorted to muscle power as a last hope.

According to a report published by AajTak on November 22, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan picked up an independent candidate Gauraav Singh Pardhi of Waraseoni constituency of Balaghat district with the help of his security men on November 21, (his brother-in-law Sanjay Singh is fighting from this seat on Congress’ ticket) and asked him to support the BJP candidate during a rally.   

The report said that Pardhi is in a stronger position than both the BJP and Congress candidates in that constituency. So, Chouhan reached his office and talked to him behind close doors. After some time, Chouhan came out of the room and pulled the latter towards his security guard’s vehicle, who dragged him inside the vehicle.

Seeing this, a supporter of Pardhi, Anis Beg got heart stroke. Beg spilled the beans to the police in the hospital later that day.

Further, in two different incidents occurring at two different constituencies – Agar and Lahar – the kin of Congress candidates have been allegedly attacked by BJP candidates, while there are several other incidents which have gone unreported.

Chouhan, who had been mocking Congress’s promise of farm loan waiver and permanent job to the contractual employees, also pronounced the same promises during a rally on November 24 in Bhopal. The Congress has reported this matter to the Election Commission because election code of conduct is in place and Chouhan made this announcement in a rally.

Besides, the last week of campaign by the BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP Chief Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath or others was totally spinning around communal lines. And all these speeches have been circling around in social media with an intention to affect the voters' sentiments.

“The top BJP leaders are not talking on jobs, women security, farmers, Rafale, Vyapam, education but on Ram Temple and Bajrangbali because they have nothing to show even after 15 years of rule and they totally failed to deliver in almost every front,” said Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi.  

All the above incidents, communal and issueless speeches, and the meetings within closed doors by the top BJP leaders indicate towards the growing uneasiness in the saffron camp and their desperation to retain power in the state.