Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress chief and former chief minister Kamal Nath is seemingly preparing for the Lok Sabha polls despite the Congress high command reportedly conveying him to step down.
The Congress veteran had led the state unit from the front, but the party’s tally was reduced from 114 in 2018 to 66 this time in the 230-member assembly.
At a Tuesday meeting in Bhopal with the party candidates who contested the 17 November election, the Pradesh Congress (PCC) chief reportedly urged them to gear up for the Lok Sabha preparations.
In Delhi for the next two days for AICC meetings, Kamal Nath is said to have told them that he would tour Madhya Pradesh after returning from Delhi, signalling his intention to continue as the Congress state president.
The Congress high command has called the state leaders to Delhi on 8 December to discuss the results and follow-up actions.
Ever since the poll results were announced Sunday, the Congress leaders and candidates have been blaming the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for their poor show.
“Even Tesla would be looking for this machine which worked for 11 hours and still remained charged at 99 percent 17 days later,” five-time Congress MLA Sajjan Singh Verma said about his defeat from Sonkatch to BJP’s Rajesh Sonkar by 25,000-plus votes.
The deliberations at the Bhopal meeting give some insight into why the Congress leaders are crying hoarse about the alleged tampering of EVMs. “On the seats that Congress party lost with huge margins, at least 100 EVMs were found to be 99 percent charged on the day of the counting,” the Congress candidates were quoted as saying by a release shared after the session.
Verma, meanwhile, seemed unwilling to accept his defeat at the hands of a new face in his constituency. “How is it that the EVMs which were used for about 10 hours during the day of counting can be show 99 percent charge when the counting began? Many of our MLAs have taken in writing from the officers that as the EVMs were opened, they were 99 percent charged,” he told ThePrint.
His colleague Kamleshwar Patel also spoke about ‘malpractices’ in EVMs. “Two days before the results, my opponent began preparations in anticipation of the results — from decorating his house to getting name plates done showing him as an MLA. At the polling booths, the BJP’s agents were able to accurately predict the number of votes they will get, how is this all possible without manipulation?” he told ThePrint.
Patel lost to BJP’s Vishwamitra Pathak by 16,000-plus votes from Sihawal seat in Sidhi district.
Unlike Verma and Patel, Youth Congress state president Vikrant Bhuria won from Jhabua by a margin of 15,000-plus votes. But he, too, felt victory did not come easy.
“In the run up to the polls, we could see how ‘police, paisa and prashahan‘ (police, money and administration) were misused to manipulate the elections. And when it comes to the Election Commission, it was as good as not being there. Taking this into consideration, we worked hard to get at least a winning margin of 40,000 votes and in this situation, I could manage to get a lead of 15,000 votes,” Bhuria told ThePrint.
“It will be clear after a detailed analysis of whether the EVMs were directly tampered, but there were clear signs of manipulations of other kinds. There is a sense that on an average, at least 20,000 votes were manipulated through various mechanisms — be it the postal ballots, muscle power, or other means on each constituency.”
Then there was another section of Congress candidates who questioned how their vote share was reduced to negligible when it comes to those booths in their strongholds while it was the opposite in the BJP backyards.
“There was a general sense amongst the Congress candidates that they were winning, which led them to put their guards down. In such a situation on such seats, there was higher manipulation whereas the candidates were more assured of their win and put their guards down. On seats like Datia where Rajendra Bharati won against Narottam Mishra by 6,000 votes, the losing margin was at least 20,000,” a party insider said.
Dissection of poll results, strategies on
All the Congress candidates have been asked to undertake a scientific assessment of their constituencies and for possible reasons of their win or loss. They have been asked to submit their reports in the next 10 days.
The candidates were directed to submit two separate reports, one analysing the elections and another on the working of the organisation.
Madhya Pradesh in-charge Randeep Surejwala has also sought reports from the district presidents to submit their analysis of the election results.
“It is not a question of whether the issue of EVMs should be raised, but what would be the best possible way to approach it. This will be one of the issues to be discussed with other alliance partners of INDIA bloc,” said a party leader.
Meanwhile, some of the losing candidates have also highlighted the organisational challenges within the party.
“The ticket distribution was as per the caste of the leaders. Under Digivijaya Singh’s influence at least 40 Thakurs got tickets, but only eight won. Similarly, social engineering done by Kamal Nath failed to pay the dividends, and the OBCs accounting for about 51 percent votes were totally neglected. There was an undercurrent that the OBC Mahasabha was unhappy with the working of BJP and its leadership. By not giving a fair share of tickets to OBC leaders, the Congress could not take advantage of the resentment,” one such candidate said.
Then there were complaints that money for bearing the poll expenses was not being released on time. “There is no denying the fact that BJP has much more resources. In this situation, the financial support that was expected from the party did not come and was not made in time. The candidates, after their names were announced, roamed like orphans in constituencies with no support from the organisation. The BJP candidates fought in a meticulous manner and negated anti-incumbency to end up winning,” another losing Congress candidate rued.
(Edited by Tony Rai)