Ahead of the fast approaching Assembly elections, the two major rivals, the Congress and the BJP, are struggling to maintain caste equilibrium in the Gwalior Chambal region.
The BJP has roped in the Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Narottam Mishra and Lal Singh Arya, among others, to manage the election campaign and booth level networking in the region. Tomar belongs to the Rajput community, while Narottam Mishra is from the Brahmin community and Arya from the SC/ST community.
The party believes that this caste equation will make dents in the influence of the Congress party, especially the Scindia family and Jyodiraditya Scindia in the region.
There is no doubt that the upper castes are angry with the BJP over the SC/ST Act ordinance brought by it to nullify the Supreme Court’s order. Only a day ago, Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi, the National President of the Karni Sena during a press conference in Bhopal had threatened that the upper caste party would not allow BJP and Congress to canvass for the assembly elections.
He had also added that the Karni Sena would not contest the elections. This statement by the Karni Sena leader is seen by some as a strong indication that the upper caste group has joined hands with Congress, albeit in a subtle mode to corner the BJP in the state. The outfit is also planning a big campaign in the state in the coming days to create awareness about the threats connected with the SC/ST Act.
Things are no different in the Congress camp. It would be an understatement to say that the last fifteen odd years have been dismal for the Congress in the state. During this period the party’s state leaders have been struggling to find answers for many upsetting questions. Besides, there is no match of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the Congress camp.
The BJP stalwarts have been trying to erode the Scindia influence in the Gwalior Chambal Division. Prabhat Jha and Higher Education Minister Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya have had several verbal attacks on Scindia in the recent past.
The Congress party is yet to come in terms with the political balances that have arisen due to the rage of the upper caste over the restoration of the original provisions in the SC/ST act. A clear indication of this is the fact that despite many meetings with the top regional leaders, Jyodiraditya Scindia, the Election in Charge has not been able to finalize the list of the candidates from the region. According to senior leaders of the region, the party is compiling ground level feedback from its workers and will soon devise a strategy to placate all sections of the public.
