Bhopal: After emerging as the single largest party in Madhya Pradesh with 114 seats in the assembly polls last Decembly, only few could imagine the magnitude of the blow the party would be dealt at the hands of BJP in the Lok Sabha 2019 polls.
The party performance has been even more dismal than 2014 when it managed to win only two seats - Chhindwara and Guna. This time Congress’s tally stands at a dismal one (Chhindwara), a figure no one could imagine was possible after the party’s resurgence in 2018 which had seemingly halted BJP’s 15 years of rule in the state.
Besides, Nakul Nath who won in Chhindwara, his father and Chief Minister Kamal Nath too slated a victory but for the assembly by-poll there.
Moreover, Nakul Nath, who was predicted as the obvious choice over Nathan Shah, could barely win by a margin of 37,536. Father Kamal Nath too trudged towards a victory with only 25,000 votes against a local candidate Vivek Sahu.
The dismal outcome, however, does not augur well for the Kamal Nath government which is keeping afloat with the support of Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and four independents.
The defeat of the party’s senior leader, including Digvijaya Singh from Bhopal, Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, Arun Yadav from Khandwa, Kantilal Bhuria from Ratlam, Ajay Singh from Sidhi and Meenakshi Natrajan from Mandsaur has shaken up the party organisation completely. The winning margins, which went up to five lakh exemplified the case that the party had been mistaken in its choice of candidate.
With barely 75 days of their regime before the Model Code of Conduct came into force, the Congress government had banked on farm loan waivers over everything else. The government kept reiterating that it had waived off farm loans of 21 lakh farmers till March 10, with minimal disposals, but the BJP led by former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan remained consistent in their efforts to take down the narrative.
The loan waiver plank seems to have failed miserably, evident from the fact that the Congress was defeated in Mandsaur where the party’s chief Rahul Gandhi had announced loan waivers for the first time in June 2018.
The Vyapam scam, which was highlighted by the ruling party in the state, was pushed into oblivion in the 75 days’ of Kamal Nath tenure.
The evident anti-incumbency wave has fuelled the rumour mill with Shivraj Singh Chouhan hitting out at that party over their defeat. Saying that it was a mandate against the Congress in MP, Singh had demanded that Nath resigned as CM.
Kailash Vijayvargiya the BJP general secretary was also quick to take a swipe at Nath. “Maan gaye kamalnathji, Do apne hi sathiyon ka shikar kar diya. (Great job Kamal Nathji, you hunted two of your own colleagues,” tweeted Vijayvargiya apparently referring to defeats of Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Singh, who was made to contest from Bhopal by Nath, is sure to have a few things to say to the Chief Minister now. The former CM was eager to take to polls from hometown Rajgarh.
Jyotiraditya Scindia too lost out on his family seat with a hefty margin of over 1.25 lakh votes,
This is also likely to intensify the infighting within the already divided Congress party.
Nath reacted by simply saying that he accepts defeat and that losing and winning is a part of democracy. The CM further said that the performance will be reviewed by the party.
The Congress near obliteration is also likely to have some ramifications on Kamal Nath’s hold on party affairs in the state. There will be double pressure on Nath now since he is also MP Congress Committee president, a post he held before becoming the Chief Minister.
The BJP will only be emboldened after this exhilarating win.
Only the next few days can go to show, what impact this loss will leave on the Kamal Nath government.