The 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh will go to polls in four phases on April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. Counting of votes for all the constituencies will be held on May 23.
Both the BJP and the Congress in Madhya Pradesh are heading for a cliffhanger of the Lok Sabha polls. While Congress is harping on local issues and the Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s achievements in the three months of power and his welfare schemes, the BJP will be all out to cash on the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his tough stand on terror, the Balakot air strikes and the quick return of Wing Commander Abhinandan from Pakistan captivity.
The Congress goes into the election its most confident ever in 15 years, having wrested power from BJP in a closely contested assembly elections.If the promise of farmers’ loan waiver was a game changer in the assembly polls, its implementation will prove to be a swing factor in the Lok Sabha elections. Chief Minister, Kamal Nath is confident that congress will bag 25 seats in the Lok Sabha poll.
After waiving loans of more than 50% of farmers before the model code of conduct came to force on March 10, Congress is expecting to garner the votes of farmers in the elections.
The BJP may have organized ‘Dhikkar Divas’ to term the loan waiver as misleading, but the fact in that the BJP is concerned about the growing popularity of the Congress on loan waiver. This has attracted a big vote bank of the farmers in favour of Congress.
Also, in a bid to improve the party’s tally of 3 MPs in the state, the Congress party’s OBC card may dent the BJP’s vote bank supported till now by the three OBC chief ministers – Uma Bharati, Babulal Gaur and Shivraj Singh Chouhan. None of them increased the reservation quota from 14% to 27%.