According to an ADR survey, 62 percent voters in the state believed that the lack of job opportunities would be the biggest factor in the elections
The first phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh was conducted on April 29. Six seats went to polls during the first phase, and the central Indian state will conduct three more phases in which the remaining 23 seats will vote.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are in a one-on-one fight against each other in MP.
The assembly elections here had yielded a hung assembly with the Congress winning 114 seats and the BJP 109.
Congress, which has been the Opposition for 15 years, needed the support of at least two MLAs to touch the simple majority mark of 116 seats in the 230-member Assembly. The support was provided by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and the Congress managed to form a government in the state.
BJP fixing loopholes, focusing on ground-level mobilisation
Ever since, the BJP has been busy fixing loopholes and concentrating on ground mobilisation.
"The first thing we have realised is that during the Assembly elections, we could not mobilise the BJP workers as well as we would have liked to," Anil Saumitra, BJP's communication head, told Moneycontrol.
"Which is why our plan was to focus more on a nationwide mobilisation campaign, with greater push towards grassroots organising than depending only on leaders," Saumitra said.
The purpose of nationwide campaigns, Saumitra said, was to ensure that the state cadre was a part of "something bigger".
"This serves two purposes — it's classic door-to-door campaigning and also motivates the ground-level worker to be a part of a nationwide campaign," another BJP leader in the state said.
Congress' farmer focus
Congress, basking in its own glory, will repeat the strategy it adopted during the assembly polls, "to counter the BJP's false agenda".
"We won because we got the support of the farmers," Kedar Sirohi, a Congress leader in the state told Moneycontrol.
"And we have fulfilled what we promised, including loan waivers. Now the focus is on farmers because the government is working for farmers. We are talking of devising a permanent solution for farmers' woes," Sirohi said, adding that the party's Nyay scheme is gaining a lot of traction on ground.
Key issues
According to reports, the issues in focus would be farmers' distress, employment and corruption. But it is here, observers have noted, that the politics of Hindutva might gain traction, considering the BJP's decision to field Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from Bhopal.
Sadhvi Pragya would be facing Congress' Digvijaya Singh. The BJP has attempted to project the Sadhvi Pragya vs Singh fight as one for Hindu identity. Thakur's statements ever since the announcement of her candidature haven't helped.
On his part, Digvijaya Singh has said he is a "proud Hindu" and had, last year, undertaken a gruelling 3,000 km circumambulation of the Narmada. Reports suggest that people in Madhya Pradesh do not find a major difference between the BJP and Congress in terms of the parties' push-and-pull for claiming the Hindu identity.
However, employment, or the lack of it, is a factor. According to a survey by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 62 percent voters in the state believed that the lack of job opportunities would be the biggest factor in the elections. Reports from the ground also point towards a dissatisfaction with the way farmers' issues have been handled.
