The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has fielded a number of unpopular candidates – including former ministers – in the Madhya Pradesh elections, is hoping that it will retain power riding on the popularity of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The Congress, despite rampant factionalism across the State, has shown the signs of regaining its base in the State and is hopeful that it will come back to power after a gap of 10 years.
As the campaign for votes ended on Saturday, both the camps were confident of its chances.
The election is on Monday and the results will be declared on December 8.
The Congress’s key problem is that it failed to project a leader against Chouhan, but the unpopular image of Chouhan’s Cabinet is helping the party.
The rising prices, particularly of petroleum products and natural gas, and corruption are being raised by the BJP against the Congress.
“The Congress is out of power for the last 10 years. They are so hungry. You don’t know what all they would do once they are elected back to power,” says Chouhan at a public rally. BJP’s star campaigner Narendra Modi has also used the campaign to ridicule his bête noire Digvijay Singh and his reign in the State between 1993 and 2003.
“Madhya Pradesh became a bimaru State as a result of the misrule of Congress. They did not bother about governance. They bothered just about power,” Modi said at a rally here on Saturday.
There are a number of myths too surrounding this election. The BJP believes that the party comes to power whenever the Ujjain Kumbh Mela (Simhastha) is celebrated. Modi mentioned this in his speech at Ujjain.
“BJP or Jan Sangh were able to improve its position whenever elections are held around Simhastha,” Modi said. The next Kumbha Mela is in 2016 and the BJP is very hopeful that it will win this time.
The Congress leadership is “surprised” at the support they got during the campaign.
“We are confident of coming back to power. All our programmes had good participation of voters. They are fed up with the BJP,” said Congress leader Suresh Pachauri.
jigeesh.am@thehindu.co.in