MP Assembly polls: NCP to contest from over 200 seats

The Nationalist Congress Party will contest from over 200 seats in the forthcoming Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, senior party functionaries said Friday.

The Nationalist Congress Party will contest from over 200 seats in the forthcoming Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, senior party functionaries said Friday. Polls for the 230-member MP Assembly is scheduled for November 28 and counting of votes will be taken up on December 11. Senior leader and Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) member Rajendra Jain and the party’s Gujarat unit spokesperson Nakul Singh Friday released the NCP’s manifesto.

“We are trying to have a coalition with like-minded parties in the state. We will contest more than 200 seats out of the total 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh,” the two leaders told reporters here Friday. Referring to the party’s manifesto, Jain and Singh informed that the NCP will provide free power and water to farmers besides waiving their loans.

The party will work towards real reforms in the state’s education sector, the leaders said. The party will ensure that crimes against women decreases and would deploy “marshals” in market areas for their safety, they said.

Claiming that the people of the state were facing a difficult situation due to the 15-year BJP rule, they said that the NCP would work towards generating employment for youth. The NCP also promised to bring petrol and diesel under the GST regime to provide relief to people from skyrocketing fuel prices.

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From farm to caste, the issues that matter in the 2018 Madhya Pradesh elections

A group of protestors turned up at the Gwalior residence of Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar on September 2 and raised slogans against a central ordinance to restore provisions of the Scheduled Castes And Scheduled Tribes (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act, that had been struck down by the Supreme Court on March 20.

Madhya Pradesh minister Maya Singh confronted a separate group of protestors during a programme on the campus of Jiwaji University in the same city. Union ministers Thawar Chand Gehlot and MJ Akbar, too, were shown black flags in Guna and Vidisha, respectively. Eighteen days later, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan sent out a tweet, “There will be no misuse of SC/ST act in Madhya Pradesh, no arrest without probe.”

A senior minister in Delhi said, “There is a sense of unease among upper castes. It is natural for any chief minister to address the issue when election is round the corner.”The amended law restored the power of police to immediately arrest a person committing an offence under the law and denied anticipatory bail to a person accused of such an offence.

A rough estimate pegs the proportion of the upper caste population in Madhya Pradesh at 22% — a size large enough to upset poll calculations of the BJP and the Congress.

The dynamics

The mobilisation of upper caste government workers started in Madhya Pradesh after Chouhan attended a conference of AJAKS — an umbrella organisation of SC/ST employees — in June 2016 and declared “koi mai ka lal aarakshan khatm nahi kar sakta” (no one dare end reservation). The state government subsequently challenged, in the Supreme Court, a Jabalpur high court order against reservation in promotion. It led to formation of SAPAKS — an organisation of employees from the general, other backward classes (OBCs) and minority communities.

The SCs and STs account for about 36% of Madhya Pradesh’s population. The BJP won 28 out of 35 assembly constituencies reserved for SCs, and 31 out of 47 seats reserved for the STs in 2013.

“The SC and ST population realises that the Congress failed to do justice to them,” BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Prabhat Jha said. “The upper castes too know that only BJP can protect their interest.” Jha’s confidence notwithstanding, the party is worried about the political fallout of the controversy. “Whether this issue will inflict damage or not, we do not know. It certainly is not going to help our case,” a BJP MP from the state said, requesting that he not be identified. “The issue has blown up at a wrong time.”

Chouhan is conscious of the problem. He is on a whirlwind tour of the state, and in most of his public meetings, he doesn’t forget to mention that Madhya Pradesh is an “island of peace” and that the status should not be altered. Chouhan returned to power in 2013 with 45.7% vote share and 165 seats. Any slip in support among the SC/ST and the other blocs comprising the upper caste and the backward classes could be detrimental for him.

Farm crisis

Sitting at a dhaba in Astha, on the BhopalIndore highway, Bhupesh Patel glances through local newspapers. He grows soya bean in his farm and makes a marginal profit.

“Our condition is not as bad as onion growers in Mandsaur. They deal with falling profit, low credit flow, and many other issues,” he said. Mandsaur was the epicenter of the farm protest in 2017 in which six farmers were killed in police firing. On June 1 that year, farmers in the state startedapeacefulprotest,demandingloan waivers and better crop prices. Five days later, the situation turned violent and the police opened fire to control the mob.

Rahul Gandhi has promised a farm loan waiver if Congress is elected to rule Madhya Pradesh and there is some panic in the BJP.

“We will have to make extra efforts to assuage their hurt feelings,” a minister in the BJP government said. Congress’ Shobha Oza says, “The farmers are not going to forgive Chouhan for opening fire on them.” Chouhan insists that the farmers are still with him. “I had held a public meeting just a few days at Pipliya Mandi, in Mandsaur, the epicenter of that incident, and people came in large numbers to support me. Farmers are with me,” he insists.

Other issues

The government’s economic survey this year revealed there were 1.12 million registered educated unemployed people in MP by the end of 2016. Only 422 got employment by 2017.

“Since the first investors summit in Khajuraho in 2007, not a single major industrial unit has come up in Madhya Pradesh,” claims Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi.

Madhya Pradesh (1,823 cases) reported the highest number of cases of atrocities against STs, accounting for 27.8% followed by Rajasthan with 18.2% (1,195 cases) and Odisha with 10.4% (681 cases) during 2016. Madhya Pradesh tops the list with 4,882 cases of rapes reported in 2016 alone, the National Crime Records Bureau data shows.

Congress leaders also allege malnutrition among children is a matter of concern. The Madhya Pradesh government accepted in the state assembly last year that 28,948 children had died in one year alone, but denied that each death was because of malnutrition.

Chouhan has tried to tide over all these issues with a flagship Sambhal scheme of power at ~ 200 per month, and other government schemes. It aims to cover more than 20 million people.

The anti-incumbency

About two dozen people this reporter spoke to in a few districts of Madhya Pradesh for this story, rate Shivraj Singh Chouhan as a better chief minister than his immediate predecessors from the BJP and the Congress.

Better roads, improved power supply and different social welfare schemes work in Chouhan’s favour.

But a majority of them complain about local MLAs. BJP president Amit Shah told the Madhya Pradesh unit recently that he will not shy away from changing candidates if internal feedback and independent survey turn out to be negative.A clear leadership is working to the BJP’s advantage but it is also battling 15 years of anti-incumbency.

The resurgence in the Congress poses a challenge to Chouhan, but the BJP is organisationally better prepared for the election. The balance is evenly poised — at the moment.

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MP polls: Illegal infiltrators took away jobs of our youths, says Amit Shah

BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday said that “illegal infiltrators” took away jobs of youths in the country, and alleged that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and other opposition parties had opposed the National Register of Citizens (NRC) when 40 lakh such settlers were identified under the exercise.

The BJP governments will “drive each and every infiltrator out of the country” after winning elections in 2018 and 2019, Shah said. Calling Rahul “Shaikh Chilli” (a simpleton), Shah said he should “stop daydreaming” about forming a government in Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP has taken root.

Shah was addressing a convention in Shivpuri, part of the erstwhile Scindia kingdom. He later took out a road show in Guna, which is represented by Congress campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia in the Lok Sabha. The BJP chief said that besides development, the most important aspect of the Narendra Modi government was creating an atmosphere of security. He said it was common for Pakistanis to behead soldiers before the Modi government came to power. “After 12 soldiers were burnt alive, the country was angry and frustrated. Within 10 days, the PM ordered security forces to enter Pakistan boundary and carry out surgical strikes to avenge the soldiers’ death,’’ he said.

Shah said the BJP government would drive out “illegal infiltrators” as the party stands for security and rights of Indians. “When the NRC identified 40 lakh illegal migrants in Assam, Rahul baba and parties like SP, BSP and TMC raised a hue and cry and opposed the exercise,” Shah said. “These migrants took away jobs of our youths. They (opposition parties) lacked concern for our youths and the hunger of the people of this country. We will drive each infiltrator out after winning elections in 2018 and 2019.” “Rahul Baba should stop daydreaming. The Congress’s condition is that it would (soon) be difficult to find them even with the help of binoculars,” Shah said.

Recalling the contribution of party stalwart and a founder member of the BJP, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia, who is the grandmother of Jyotiraditya, Shah said massive victories in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections would be a great tribute to her. He said her birth centenary would be celebrated on a grand scale.

Addressing Yuva Sammelan in Gwalior later, the BJP chief said the upcoming Assembly and LS elections would have a lasting impact. “These elections will decide if democracy and the great people of this country choose parties driven by individuals or parties that follow and ideology,” he said. MP will go to polls in November.

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SC reserves order on EC, Congres row over errors in Madhya Pradesh rolls

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on a major row between the Election Commission and the Congress over alleged acts of omission and commission over the electoral rolls in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.

However, the top court said it would separately examine a plea by Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot on the need to verify at least 10% per cent of VVPATs to ensure poll purity.

The hearing on Monday was again marred by accusations and crossaccusations by Congress leaders, represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and EC counsels senior advocate Vikas Singh and Amit Sharma.

Sibal was flanked by senior advocates Vivek Tankha and Anoop G Chaudhari. Varun Chopra was assisting Sibal.

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SP rules out alliance with Congress in poll-bound MP

The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Saturday ruled out any alliance with the Congress for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said they waited long to come to an understanding but the Congress had shown no willingness to join hands with like-minded parties to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“We have waited till now but not any longer,” the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister told a gathering at the party headquarters here.

He added that the party will either contest the polls on its own or in an alliance with the Gondwana Party.

“The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has already declined any tie-up with the grand old party and I am sure other parties in other poll-bound states will also soon announce their candidates,” the SP President stated.

In an indirect reference to the statement of senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh that the BSP was not aligning with the Congress against the BJP in Madhya Pradesh for fear of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI, Yadav said parties like the SP and BSP were not scared of anything.

He said the SP was ready to explore the possibility of a coalition with the BSP in Madhya Pradesh.

In his address, he slammed the state government and said that people had lost faith in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and that law and order had completely collapsed in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress and the SP contested the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls together in 2017 but the alliance did not work in their favour as the BJP stormed to power with a landslide victory.

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Amit Shah Launches BJP’s Mass Contact Campaign In Madhya Pradesh

BJP president Amit Shah today formally launched the party’s mass contact campaign in the Malwa-Nimad region of poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.

Mr Shah launched the ‘Maha Jansampark Abhiyan’ from the Rajwada area and sought support from the people for his party in the upcoming polls.

He garlanded a statue of Ahilyabai Holkar, a former queen of the kingdom of Malwa, in front of the historic Rajwada Palace of the erstwhile Holkar dynasty.

Mr Shah also offered prayers at a Mahalaxmi temple located in the vicinity.

The BJP chief launched the campaign from a famous ‘paan shop’ in Rajwada and its owner offered a ‘paan‘ to Mr Shah.

Standing on the foot-board of his vehicle, Mr Shah greeted the people gathered in the area and then travelled from Rajwada Palace to Krishnapura Chhatri, covering a distance of about half-a-kilometer.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who is the BJP MP from Indore, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other senior party leaders accompanied Mr Shah.

The mass contact programme will cover the Malwa-Nimar region of western Madhya Pradesh, an area considered a BJP bastion.

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Election dates for Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana out, results on Dec 11

HIGHLIGHTS

Chhattisgarh will go to polls in two phases on November 12 and November 20
Telangana and Rajasthan will go to polls together on December 7
MP and Mizoram will go to polls together on November 28

The Election Commission of India today announced election dates for assembly elections in five states – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana.

Chief Election Commissioner, OP Rawat, announced the election dates for the five states.

Election in Chhattisgarh will take place in two phases. Election in phase one (18 seats) will take on November 12. For the second phase (72 seats) voting will be held on November 20.

For Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram voting will be held in a single phase on November 28.

For Rajasthan and Telangana voting will be held in a single phase on December 7.

Results for all the five states will be out on December 11.

These five assembly elections would be crucial for the BJP as it gears up for the Lok Sabha election next year. The BJP is in power in three of these states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. While the Congress is in power in Mizoram, Telangana Rashtra Samithi was in power in Telangana before the assembly was dissolved.

The election code of conduct comes into play with immediate effect in these states.

Here is the complete schedule for assembly elections in the five states:

CHHATTISGARH

Elections will be held in two phases. Phase one includes the left-wing extremism-affected areas with 18 seats and phase two includes 72 seats.

Phase 1

Last date of filing nomination – October 23

Date of scrutiny – October 24

Last date for withdrawal of candidature – October 26

Date of voting – November 12

Counting date – December 11

Phase 2

Last date of filing nomination – November 2

Date of scrutiny – November 3

Last date for withdrawal of candidature – November 5

Date of voting – November 20

Counting date – December 11

MADHYA PRADESH and MIZORAM

Election schedule in Madhya Pradesh (230 seats) and Mizoram (40 seats) will be the same. Elections will be held in a single phase in both states.

Last date of filing nomination – November 9

Date of scrutiny – November 12

Last date for withdrawal of candidature – November 14

Date of voting – November 28

Counting date – December 11

TELANGANA and RAJASTHAN

Telangana and Rajasthan will go to polls together. Elections will be held in a single phase in both states.

Last date of filing nomination – November 19

Date of scrutiny – November 20

Last date for withdrawal of candidature – November 22

Date of voting – December 7

Counting date – December 11

Assembly Election Rallies Live Updates: PM Modi In Rajasthan, Rahul Gandhi To Address Rally In Madhya Pradesh

With the Election Commission expected to announce the dates for Assembly Elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh among other dates, political parties are sending their star campaigners to these states to better their chances in the upcoming elections. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a rally in Rajasthan today, his political rival Rahul Gandhi will visit Madhya Pradesh.

BJP chief Amit Shah will also head to Madhya Pradesh, where he is expected to make multiple visits over the next few days to meet party workers, respective spokespersons of the two parties said. The Congress chief will arrive in Morena via Gwalior to take part in Ekta Parishad conclave, a party spokesperson said. He will proceed to Jabalpur on the same day where he will perform’ Narmada Puja’ at Gwari Ghat and later hold a roadshow.

Amit Shah will visit Indore today where he will meet party workers from Indore and Ujjain regions, a BJP spokesperson said. He will visit Gwalior on October 9 to meet party workers.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is in Madhya Pradesh for a day-long visit to the poll-bound state. Here, posters can be seen in Jabalpur where Rahul Gandhi will perform a Narmada Puja at Gwari Ghat today. He will also address a public gathering in Jabalpur. This is Rahul Gandhi’s third visit to Madhya Pradesh in less than 20 days.

With an eye on assembly polls due later this year, BJP president Amit Shah in Indore will formally launch the party’s mass contact campaign in the crurcial Malwa-Nimad region of Madhya Pradesh to woo voters especially traders, tribals and farmers. Amit Shah will launch the ‘Maha Jansampark Abhiyan’ from historic Rajwada area and walk for nearly 15 minutes up to Krishnapura Chhatri area to appeal people in the dense commercial area to vote for the BJP.

The Congress had won the Ajmer Lok Sabha seat by defeating BJP’s Ramswaroop Lamba who is the son of former Ajmer MP Sanwar Lal Jat in the bypolls held earlier in 2018. The seat went to bypoll after the then sitting MP Sanwar Lal Jat died due to cardiac arrest last year.

Poll-bound Rajasthan’s Ajmer district has eight assembly constituencies and seven of them are represented by BJP MLAs while the Congress has one seat of Nasirabad. The BJP, which had lost the Ajmer Lok Sabha constituency to Congress in bypolls held earlier this year, is trying to build a favourable atmosphere and mood among the voters by holding the rally of PM Modi, who had addressed an election rally in Ajmer in 2013 also.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a rally in Ajmer in Rajasthan today, marking the conclusion of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s state-wide ‘Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra’ which she had begun from Rajsamand’s Charbhujanath temple.

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Amit Shah To Start BJP’s Mass Contact Campaign In Madhya Pradesh Today

Amit Shah will launch the ‘Maha Jansampark Abhiyan’ from historic Rajwada area and walk for nearly 15 minutes up to Krishnapura Chhatri area to appeal people in the dense commercial area to vote for the BJP, a party spokesman said.

With an eye on assembly polls due later this year BJP president Amit Shah will arrive in Indore today to formally launch the party’s mass contact campaign in the curcial Malwa-Nimad region of Madhya Pradesh to woo voters especially traders, tribals and farmers.

Amit Shah will launch the ‘Maha Jansampark Abhiyan’ from historic Rajwada area and walk for nearly 15 minutes up to Krishnapura Chhatri area to appeal people in the dense commercial area to vote for the BJP, a party spokesman said.

From Indore, Mr Shah will go to tribal Jhabua district to address ‘Adivasi Sammelan’ and later visit Jaora in Ratlam district for addressing farmers, he said.

Mr Shah will also interact with party functionaries at Indore and Ujjain divisions to charge them ahead of crucial assembly polls, the spokesman said.

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MP election 2018: Congress gave false electoral rolls to mislead court, says EC

The Election Commission and Congress leaders traded accusations in the Supreme Court over the veracity of documents produced by the party to claim that electoral rolls in Madhya Pradesh were full of errors, prompting the top court to ask both sides to file affidavits to back their stands.

The EC, through Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Vikas Singh, accused the Congress of producing in court portions of electoral lists in MP which were not true.

“They are trying to prejudice the court with wrong documents and get relief,” Singh charged. Singh also refused to hand over the entire electoral rolls in MP to the party leaders, saying that it cannot “hand over data which can be mined”.

Instead, he insisted, that the EC was doing all it can, including using software analysis, to check facts and figures.

He contested some names which the Congress leaders had charged were duplicates to claim that they had produced wrong facts with intent to get relief from the court.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal vehemently contested this version. He said that the data had been collected from public sources and that they were only trying to establish its authenticity. He denied the allegation that the party was trying to mislead the court.

The EC had in Rajasthan conceded the Congress demand to give them word files of the electoral rolls for verification. Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath has since accused the EC of going back on its stand and denying the party the list for Madhya Pradesh.

The EC has, so far, resisted handing over the requisite data ahead of the impending polls.

The standoff forced the bench led by Justice AK Sikri to ask both sides to file affidavits in support of their case. He was sitting alongside Justice Ashok Bhushan. Affidavits are sworn statements made to the court.

Sibal also demanded to know why the EC hadn’t taken any action so far against websites which were unauthorisedly reproducing the electoral rolls.

Kamal Nath had on August 10 filed a petition seeking a direction to the EC to ensure proper verification of electoral rolls to weed out duplicate voters in the interest of free and fair polls to the state Assembly.

His petition had also demanded compulsory cross-verification of EVM vote counts with the Voter Veri fiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in the forthcoming polls.