Cong challenges satraps with ‘difficult’ seats

Rasheed Kidwai 
Senior Journalist & Author

Madhya Pradesh is witnessing a protracted battle among three key players - Digvijaya Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath — over the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. 

Nath, Chief Minister of the state, set the ball rolling when he recently went public, asking Digvijaya and Scindia to contest from "difficult seats" and wrest parliamentary seats like Bhopal and Gwalior from the BJP. Scindia, AICC general secretary in charge of western Uttar Pradesh, is currently the Lok Sabha MP from Guna while Digvijaya, two-time former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, is a Rajya Sabha MP. 

While Scindia kept mum, refusing to be drawn by Nath's challenge, Digvijaya took the Twitter route to respond to the Congress Chief Minister. He first talked about his bond with Rajgarh which had elected him as the Lok Sabha MP in 1977 and then wrote again, thanking Kamal Nath for considering him worthy of contesting from a seat which the party has not won since 1989.

Diggy Raja, as he popularly called, has been two-time Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh during 1993-2003. In the Madhya Pradesh political circles, the former Raja of Raghaogarh is considered as an equal to Chief Minister Kamal Nath and enjoys a "Bada bhai- Chhota bhai" (Nath being elder) relationship with the new Chief Minister . In fact, it is a bit of role reversal between Nath and Digvijaya as during the 1993-2003 Congress rule, Nath's wishes were treated as command and Digvijaya used to publicly acknowledge Nath as the real power behind the throne.

Nath's son Nakul is in the fray from Chhindwara, a parliamentary constituency that has elected Kamal Nath nine times since 1980.

Madhya Pradesh has several seats such as Bhopal, Indore, Vidisha, Damoh and Bhind that have remained with the BJP for decades. Nath wants to win these seats in order to make a strong political statement that the state Assembly poll victory of December 2018 was not a fluke. Nath has reportedly promised 20 out of 29 parliamentary seats to his party chief Rahul Gandhi. The task of winning 20 seats is rather insurmountable in the wake of the Balakot airstrikes resulting in hyper-nationalism. But sources close to Nath are still confident of netting 14-15 Lok Sabha seats. In 2014, the Congress had won two out of the 29 Lok Sabha seats that were earned by Nath and Scindia. 

Bhopal can be a tricky turf for Digvijaya. On the positive side, he can count on the bulk of over three lakh Muslim votes and the presence of his son as state urban development minister. Digvijaya's support base supposedly cuts across caste lines and his oratory skills are an asset. He has a huge network of party workers, religious leaders, bureaucrats and other influential members of society who reside in Bhopal. 

But on the flip side, Digvijaya's candidature can lead to religious polarisation. In recent years, some of Digvijaya's utterances have been against "saffron terror." He had publicly expressed doubts over the Batla House encounter and the death of anti-terror squad chief Hemant Karkare during the 26/11 Mumbai attack. These remarks were used by the RSS and Sangh Parivar to dub the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister as "anti-Hindu."

Interestingly, Digvijaya has been getting some free advice from the opponents. Former state BJP Chief Minister Babulal Gaur has gone on record dissuading Digvijaya from opting for Bhopal. Gaur, who holds a record of sorts, winning the Govindpura assembly seat 10 times, has cautioned Digvijaya against contesting from Bhopal. Speaking in Hindi, Gaur addressed Digvijaya through the local media and said, "Bhool kar bhi aaisi galti na karna" (do not commit the folly even by mistake).

Sources close to Digvijaya said he would wait for party chief Rahul Gandhi's nod or insistence to contest from Bhopal. Outgoing BJP MP Alok Sanjar has not been a popular figure, so there is a likelihood of some BJP bigwig, like union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, contesting from the Madhya Pradesh capital. Tomar is currently the MP from Gwalior. 

The options before Scindia are few. Given his preoccupation with Uttar Pradesh, Scindia supporters want him to field wife Priyadarshani from Guna or Gwalior and focus on battleground Uttar Pradesh. But Scindia has remained non-committal, pointing that he would go by Rahul Gandhi's decision. 

Nath's interest in Digvijaya and Scindia's seats has generated a lot of attention in the Congress circles both within and outside Madhya Pradesh. One way of looking at it is a sign of measuring the electoral strength of Digvijaya and Scindia, who never tire of projecting themselves as regional satraps. There are over a dozen ministers in the Nath cabinet who flaunt their allegiance to either Digvijaya or Scindia. A poor performance by either of them would weaken their hold in state politics and indirectly strengthen Nath, while electoral conquests would increase the Congress tally.