Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
Gwalior, May 5
Amid the rising temperatures in the Hindi heartland and perceptible lack of ‘muddas’ (issues) and also enthusiasm about the ongoing elections, the only visible thing in the Gwalior-Chambal region appears to be the battle between two parties — the BJP and the Congress — and the caste factor.
In the 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress won seven of the eight Assembly seats that together make up the Gwalior Lok Sabha constituency. In those terms, a Congress victory should have been easy to predict in this prestigious seat that sent big guns like Atal Behari Vajpayee, Vijyaraje Scindia and Madhavrao Scindia to the Lok Sabha
This time around, Ashok Singh of the Congress and Vivek Shejwalkar of the BJP, who is also the Gwalior mayor, are in the fray. Shejwalkar replaced union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who shifted to adjoining Morena Lok Sabha constituency, to avoid anti-incumbency due to the way voters reacted in the Assembly elections in the wake of protest by farmers and SC/ST agitation.
Caste plays a big factor in the region with significant number of Dalit population and an equally sizable chunk of Brahmins, Thakurs and OBCs voters. Last year, the region was a witness to violence over the dilution of the SC/ST Act by the Supreme Court, leading to tensions between upper castes and Dalits.
So while in terms of arithmetic based on last Assembly elections, Shejwalkar may be at a disadvantage, but because he is a Brahmin, “any last minute pact by the community could shift the poll either way, perhaps also in his favour”
Meanwhile, Ashok Singh enjoys a certain sympathy wave because of not being able to win the elections in the past along with the numerical advantage.
“The Congress won 26 seats out of 34 in the Gwalior-Chambal region, a stronghold of Jyotiraditya Scindia. Tomar won the 2014 elections with just around 30,000 votes when the Modi wave was at its peak. In the two earlier elections, Yashodhra Raje (BJP) won because she belongs to the royal family, which is a big factor in this region.
“This time there is neither any wave nor anyone from the royal family in the fray, which makes the case of Ashok Singh strong. But there is also a clear divide between urban and rural voters. While urban voters are with the BJP, the rural voters are more inclined towards the Congress. Then in rural areas, caste divides are also more pronounced. In Gwalior particularly, it all depends upon which way the ‘brahmins’ vote,” explains a Congress leader.
Plus Ashok Singh belongs to the Digvijaya Singh’ camp. In other words, he is not the choice of Scindia, resulting in intra-party factionalism. Also when people gave the Congress an overwhelming response in Assembly, it was thinking that Scindia would be the CM, which did not happen.
Meanwhile, those who have been supporting the BJP all these years also want to give the Congress a chance. The anger over the BJP-led Centre’s decision to restore the SC/ST Atrocities Act persists among supporters who are also unhappy that the party fielded a “even though likeable but a weak candidate” Shejwalkar while Tomar “ran away to Morena”.
The decision to field Shejwalkar instead of Morena MP Anoop Mishra, nephew of late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is another factor working against the BJP candidate. After Tomar decided to contest from Morena, Mishra was apparently told he would be fielded from Gwalior.
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2VJGDAm
via Today’s News Headlines
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