Before the elections, Congress's chances in Madhya Pradesh looked dismally thin. But an unusually high tribal turnout ensured that Digvijay Singh emerged Victorious
IN TUNE WITH THE MASSES
IT WAS unexpected. A sudden increase in
tribal voter turnout and the impact of
Panchayati Raj programmes swung the
scale in favour of the Congress in
Madhya Pradesh's (mp's) Legislative
Assembly elections. Vikram Verma,
opposition leader in the last mp
Assembly, was projected as the next
chief minister (cm). Digvijay Singh, a
close friend of his, had advised him not
to contest from a tribal and minority
dominated area. But he did - from
Dhar - and lost by 127 votes. The
number of votes cast was 1, 11,000. The
turnout was very high in tribal areas -
about 80 per cent, reportedly.
This belied all predictions that leak
ages in the Panchayati Raj system and
decentralisation of power would decentralise corruption and lead to the defeat
of the Congress. It only resulted in a
resounding win for the Congress.
Decentralisation brought forth a
new level of rural leadership in the last
five years. In fact, it allowed the
Congress to induct 71 new faces into the
elections. For each ticket, there were six
to seven serious contenders in one district who had the potential to win an
election. The BJP, however, did not have
such options as it failed to reach the
people at the grassroots levels. The
Congress was able to bring rural leadership to the fore. In all, 27 new mLAs have a Panchayati Raj background.
"Panchyati Raj and various other
welfare measures did contribute to the
election (results) substantially," Singh
says (see interview: Decentralise and
rule). People had realised that due to the
programmes under the Rajiv Gandhi
missions, they were getting a share in
power and were being included in gov-
ernance. The power which was concen-
trated earlier in Bhopal was gradually
coming into the hands of the people.
For the first time village committees had
control over money to run these pro-
grammes. Sanjay Shukla, chief executive
officer, Z111a Panchayat, Jhabua, says:
"People have started realising that
because of Panchayati Raj programmes
they are getting powers in
governance."
A very interesting trend was thus
revealed when several panchayat presidents, not only from the
Congress but also from the BJP, were victorious. For
example, in Dharampuri constituency
of district Dhar, the BJP candidate was a
sarpanch. He did not have any political
experience nor was he backed by any
heavyweight. He had only been a
sarpanch for five years. In Badnawar
constituency of Dhar district, the BJP
candidate was a member of the Janpad
panchayat. He is a farmer by profession
d are
and is a novice to politics. It seems that
the voter cut across party lines to vote
for those who had
worked at the grassroots level.
In Rajgarh, all the five Congress candidates
who won were from the zilla
panchayat, the Janpad panchayat, or the
gram panchayat. According
to estimates,
about 90 per cent
of the gram panchayats were headed by Congress work-
ers in mp.
This gave the Congress active
volunteers - the panch and the
sarl-unch in every gram panchayat came
out to canvass for the Congress.
In the district of Jhabua, where a major
watershed programme transformed the
area from a moonscape to a green belt,
Nirmala Bhuria, the BJP candidate won
from Petlawad. There were reasons for
her victory. Being the daughter of Dilip
Singh Bhuria helped.
Dilip Singh was closely associated
with the watershed programme. Most of
the Congress workers in the area also
moved with him to the BJP when he left
the Congress. Dilip Singh Bhuria had
done a lot ofwork for the tribals when he
was member of Parliament from Thabua.
In Petlawad, therefore, the contest was
not between parties but between individuals. The community voted for some-
one who had worked for its welfare.
Since the beginning of the Panchayati Raj system in mp, development
activities have shown outstanding
results. Farmers are now growing cash
crops like soybean and tomato. There is
enough water for irrigation.
In Alirajpur constituency of Jhabua,
the Congress retained the seat. The BJP
never had a programme of its own in the
rural areas. It could not go to the people
and say that the Congress had not done
anything for them.
"They failed to convince the people
that the Congress had done nothing in
the last five years," says Nikunj Soni,
acting principal in Nanpur high school
ofAlirajpur.
"Tribals have started realising that it
is their own government and that they
are now getting both power and impor-
tance. They also know it is the Congress
which is doing this," he adds.
According to a preliminary analysis
made by the state election commissioner's office, a swing of 0. 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent in favour of the Congress
apparently decided the result of around
one-third of the seats. A swing less than
0.5 per cent decided 30 seats in favour of
the Congress and 79 seats were decided
by a swing of 1.5 per cent.
In fact, the tribal vote played havoc
with poll forecasts. Though the
Congress did not win in all tribal areas,
its losses were adjusted against gains in
other areas. A small swing was good
enough to help the Congress retain
power. The importance of this minute
swing was the deciding factor, especially
as the Congress and BJP were running
neck to neck in the race for power.
Both were in a way braving the antiincumbency factor: the BJP for its failure at the Centre, the Congress as the
incumbent in the state.
"That is the only obvious reason of
Congress's victory now," acknowledges
BJP leader Sunderlal Patwa.
According to state election commission's office sources, the empowerment
of tribals and giving them a say in their
own destiny has resulted in more tribals
voting this time than in 1993 elections.
There is an increase of 10 per cent in the
voter turnout in Scheduled Tribe seats,
going by an assessment of 10 Scheduled
Tribe Assembly constituencies spreading over six districts.
Observers attribute this rise in
turnout to the half a million grassroots
institutions that have been created
under Panchayati Raj, Rajiv Gandhi
Mission on Watershed Development,
and the Education Guarantee Scheme.
According to Ratan Singh Bhabar,
newly-elected Congress MLA from
Thandla in Jhabua, "Over the last four
years, after the watershed (development
programme) and Panchayati Raj came
into force, our grassroots network
became so strong that I won with over 60
per cent of the votes despite the strong
anti-incumbency wave in the state."
This high turnout, accompanied
with a swing, marginalised the antiincumbency factor for Congress at the
grassroots level in the rural areas. While
in urbanised regions, such as the
Madhya Bharat, it was the vote against
the rising price and non-performance of
the BJP government at the Centre which
helped the Congress gained.
BJP was considered to be strong in
Chattisgarh. It is a good example of how
the micro-level swing worked in favour
of the Congress. The BJP'S call for the
separate state of Chattisgarh produced
no result. The BJP got 35 out of 90 seats
from this demarcated state (a gain of
five seats from the last elections), while
the Congress got 46, a loss of eight seats
as compared to the 1993 elections.
Chattisgarh showed contrasting
results in different districts in the
same region. The Congress swept the
tribal dominated Bastar district by
winning all the seven seats. On the other
hand, in urban Bilaspur, the BJP got
seven seats and the Congress managed to
win only two. Bilaspur was declared a
railway division by the Centre, a longstanding demand of the people. This put
BJP in the favour of the working class.
Five Congress ministers lost from
Chattisgarh and three from Bilaspur.
Bastar is a priority area like Jhabua
as far as the watershed mission and the
employment guarantee scheme are concerned. In Bilaspur, there were also
reports of political interference in
Panchayati Raj affairs from former
Congress ministers who, according to
reports, were opposed to decentralisation. Moreover, officials admit that
decentralisation was not as effective
there as in Bastar or Jhabua.
---Reported by Richard Mahapatra from
Bhopal, Rajat Banerji in Chattisgarh and
Manish Tiwari in Jhabua.
We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.
Comments are moderated and will be published only after the site moderator’s approval. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition.