MP polls: BJP hits top gear with serial Modi rallies in swing region
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, November 14
The ruling BJP on Tuesday hit top gear in poll bound Madhya Pradesh with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing rallies in the swing region of Malwa-Nimar and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launching a voter slip distribution drive in Bhopal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a road show in the Indore district of Malwa where it currently holds four of the seven assembly segments.
BJP’s general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya is contesting from Indore 1, where sitting Congress MLA Sanjay Shukla is putting up a spirited fight against the saffron veteran who has never lost an election.
“This election is meant to accelerate the development of Madhya Pradesh with the double engine speed. It is about providing new opportunities to youth and women. It is about keeping the Congress hand of loot and corruption away from Madhya Pradesh. You must remember- Congress knows only how to usurp, not how to give. Congress Aayi, Tabahi Layi,” Prime Minister said at rallies in Bhopal’s Betul, and Malwa-Nimar’s Shajapur and Jhabua.
Modi predicted massive voter mobilization around the BJP this season and said “people will create history by coming out of their homes to vote.”
“Only today we received a report from the state that Congress has accepted defeat and now they’re relying on luck. Congress can care only for one family and their children whereas the BJP thinks about all your children,” the PM said, attacking Congress and its leadership as “self serving and pessimistic about India’s growth story.”
Importantly, the BJP is banking on higher voter turnout in the swing region of Malwa-Nimar which houses 15 districts with the largest number of 66 constituencies among six regions of the state.
While the Congress had won 35 of these 66 in the 2018 polls, the BJP was confined to 28.
The region includes Indore’s 7 districts, and Jhabua and Shajapur three each.
In 2013, Malwa-Nimar had propelled the BJP to victory in the state with the party bagging 57 seats.
BJP suffered losses in this region in 2018 on account of farmers’ unrest in Mandsaur.
The BJP this time hopes its promise of enhanced MSP on wheat (Rs 2,700 per quintal) and paddy (Rs 3,100 a quintal) will help sway farmers in its favour though the Congress promise of a farm loan waiver also remains an equally dominant sop.
Importantly for BJP, Malwa-Nimar, where the PM held two rallies ahead of November 17 polls, is home to 17 seats which the Congress has not won for over three decades.
These seats include Indore 2 (with BJP since 1993); Indore 4 (with BJP since 1990s); Indore 5 (with BJP since 2003); Dhar (with BJP for 20 years) and Ujjain South and North.
Congress senior MLA Jeetu Patwari is contesting from Rau, a segment in Indore district and Vikrant Bhuria, the son of former union minister Kanti Lal Bhuria is fighting his maiden poll from Jhabua in Malwa-Nimar.