With polls faraway, MP in slumber mood

Since polling for the Madhya Pradesh’s 29 seats is scheduled in the last four phases beginning from April 29, electioneering is yet to pick up in the state.

The main rivals — the BJP and the Congress — haven't yet declared candidates for more than half of the constituencies.

Of the 14 BJP candidates declared so far, five are new faces.

The Congress, which had won only three seats in the 2014 elections, has retained Kantilal Bhuria for Ratlam-Jhabua seat but replaced Kamal Nath by his son Nakul Nath in Chhindwara.

On the third Congress seat — Guna — suspense persists, as it is not yet clear whether Jyotiraditya Scindia will contest on his traditional seat or will be asked to move to either to Gwalior or Indore.

Speculation is also rife about the possibility of his wife Priyadarshani Raje’s maiden entry in the poll arena from Guna or Gwalior.

Enthused by the Assembly election victory last year, the Congress is looking far more confident than it did in 2014. Its confidence is most evident in the gambit to field senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh from Bhopal, a seat which the party has not won since 1989. The BJP is in a tizzy over the former chief minister’s challenge.

Bhopal is not the only worry for the saffron party. Nearly a dozen seats for which the party has announced candidates are embroiled in dissidence and threats of sabotage.

Senior BJP leaders Ram Lal and Vinay Sahastrabuddhe are struggling hard to placate dissidents across the state.

The fear of a rerun of the Assembly poll is haunting the BJP leadership.

Revolt is believed to have cost the party more than a dozen seats while it needed only nine seats to reach the magic figure of 116 in the 230-strong state Assembly.

Resentment is brewing in the Congress too, but not of the BJP scale.

Chief Minister Kamal Nath, who is also PCC chief, has cautioned party cadres not to break the momentum built in the party’s favour last year in Madhya Pradesh.

He has also sent across the message that as the chief minister he has many allurements to offer to ticket aspirants in lieu of giving up their claim.

Like the rest of India, the BJP’s main thrust in the campaigning will be Modi’s leadership in ensuring national security and inspiring patriotism.

The Congress hopes to cash in on the fulfillment of its two major election promises— loan waiver for farmers and job scheme for the unemployed youth.