POLITICS
What will happen to the Madhya Pradesh Congress if Kamal Nath defects?
Many in the MP Congress blame Kamal Nath for the party’s spectacular failure in the 2023 assembly polls. Though his exit would mean the loss of the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat and a handful of MLAs, the general mood among party workers suggest they are not likely to lament the veteran’s defection
POLITICS
MP's new government turns to loans to pay for predecessor's generous pre-poll promises
The MP government’s pre-poll announcements and schemes are estimated to increase expenditure by at least 10 percent. The cash-strapped Mohan Yadav government urgently requires loans of around Rs 25,000 crore to meet ex-CM Shivraj Singh's promises to voters
TRENDS
SC Decision on Article 370: J&K’s destiny inextricably linked to the Republic of India
Supreme Court has upheld GoI’s contention on the temporary character of Article 370 and ruled that J&K has no internal sovereignty within India
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Will Congress heed MP electorate’s rejection of Kamal Nath-Digvijaya Singh jodi?
Congress should have sacked Kamal Nath as PCC president for the Jyotiraditya Scindia fiasco that lost the party the state. Instead he was given untrammelled powers in deciding candidates and strategies for this election. Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh tightly supervised and executed everything, leaving little room for involvement from younger leaders
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
MP Election Results 2023: Shivraj’s women voters and Modi Ki Guarantee help craft BJP’s stunning victory
MP Election Results 2023: Women voters’ ringing endorsement of CM Chouhan’s Ladli Behna Yojana and “Modi Ki guarantee” have translated into BJP’s stunning victory in MP. Another weapon in BJP’s armoury is the deep penetration of the saffron ideology in all institutions, be it culture, academics, bureaucracy or trading community
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
MP Elections 2023: Exit polls add to the confusion in a closely fought contest
The extreme divergence between two prominent polling agencies has made MP tough to call. If BJP wins, credit will go to CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. But Congress ran one of its best campaigns in MP, though its poll guarantees that worked in other states may have been neutralised by Chouhan’s Ladli Behna Yojana
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
MP Elections 2023: In the end, both BJP and Congress campaigns centred on Shivraj Singh Chouhan
Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: Congress consistently harped on Chouhan’s failures while the BJP, which initially tried to shake off his legacy, had to accept his preeminence in the state and trust that the goodies which Chouhan promised voters on election eve will deliver the state to it once again
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
MP Elections 2023: Why an overwhelming sense of déjà vu pervades the state this time
Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: The same jaded faces who helmed BJP and Congress in 2018 – Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Kamal Nath – are in the race for the CM’s post. Voters who were fed up with the Chouhan regime in 2018 were disappointed that the Congress government under Kamal Nath was hardly distinguishable from its predecessor. Not surprisingly voter aspirations are muted this time
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
MP Elections 2023: Cautious Congress promoting non-dynasts for future leadership
Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: The likes of Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath could fade away by the next assembly elections. A clutch of younger Congress leaders who cannot be called dynasts given their rootedness are being groomed by the central leadership to take the place of the veterans
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
MP Elections 2023: How Shivraj Singh Chouhan got lucky again and won BJP high command backing
Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: Though it looked initially that Shivraj Singh Chouhan was being sidelined, the chief minister has made a sharp comeback to the campaign trail. This time Lady Luck has come visiting him in the form of the Congress decision to focus on a caste census to woo OBCs
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
MP Elections 2023: Digvijaya Singh, the bearer of Kamal Nath’s ‘power of attorney for taking abuses’
Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: Between 2003 and 2017, Digivijaya Singh was blamed for Congress’s decline in the state. But Kamal Nath taking the reins of the MP Congress in 2017 coincided with a political revival for Digvijaya. Since then, their near total control over the party organisation has had both its good and bad sides
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: Scindia earns trust of top BJP leadership but he is on slippery ground
Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: The BJP high command is betting big on Jyotiraditya Scindia in the Gwalior-Chambal region. But he faces a tough task repeating 2018 when his faction helped Congress win 28 of the 34 seats in the region. Congress is also running a tactical campaign in his pocket borough by not even mentioning his 2020 “betrayal”
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: Why both Congress and BJP are strategising hard for the tribal vote
MP Election 2023: The tribal vote returned to Congress in 2018 after three successive elections where they favoured BJP. While Congress is trying to improve its tally, BJP is sweating it out to regain lost support. Both parties are well aware of one key statistic: The party winning the tribal vote has gone on to form the MP government on past occasions
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Madhya Pradesh: BJP’s unease over perceived fatigue with Shivraj becomes ammo for Congress
BJP is placing its bets on PM Modi’s popularity and the huge resources the party commands. A surprise this time is the sidelining of CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, which he is stiffly resisting. Congress is hoping that anti-incumbency and its OBC outreach will overcome Chouhan’s expensive wooing of women voters with generous cash handouts
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Madhya Pradesh: BJP’s sway over OBCs faces stiffest challenge in 20 years
Though his government was short-lived, Kamal Nath’s one particular decision may come back to help Congress and haunt BJP: Doubling OBC reservation to 27%. Despite ruling the state for two decades and enjoying massive OBC support, will the BJP regret not taking the lead on this score?
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
After Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh too slated for a centrally driven BJP poll campaign, but will it backfire?
CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been relegated to doling out welfare schemes as the BJP central leadership takes the reins of the election campaign. But Chouhan’s perceived vulnerability and subordination to the high command could be sowing confusion for the party despite its resource and organisational advantages over Congress
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Madhya Pradesh: Poll-eve freebie wars raise spectre of unsustainable debt
BJP and Congress are locked into a spiralling fight to outdo the other in offering sops to voters. The cash bonanzas amid a close electoral battle raises questions why parties don’t venture into such expensive schemes that strain the exchequer when there are no elections
INDIA
Madhya Pradesh: A despicable act upsets BJP’s tribal outreach plan for assembly polls
The Sidhi incident has greatly angered MP’s tribal communities. In 2018, BJP had done poorly in ST reserved constituencies forcing the party to launch a string of tribal outreach activities since 2021. Interestingly, BJP swept the same areas in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls suggesting that tribal anger is reserved for the state BJP government
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Madhya Pradesh: Of two Congress veterans divided by ideological pursuit, not factionalism
As the Madhya Pradesh polls nears, Congress grapples with a key contradiction. Kamal Nath is trying hard to position Congress as a competitor for BJP’s Hindutva vote while Digvijaya Singh is attacking religious preachers aligned with the Hindutva ideology. How their camaraderie survives is a mystery, or a dead giveaway of strategy
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
As polls draw nearer, competitive religiosity is the name of the game in Madhya Pradesh
With Hindutva fetching rich rewards for BJP in successive elections, the MP Congress under Kamal Nath is leaning further to the right this time in its “soft Hindutva” strategy, wooing a fringe Hindutva outfit to its fold and even reaching out to religious preachers aligned with the BJP
ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS
Madhya Pradesh: BJP high command mulls big changes and a dilemma over Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the poll-bound state
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is well entrenched but he faces distinct disadvantages heading into the elections. There is growing fatigue over his continuance, rampant factionalism in the party, and the Congress is trying to use allegations of corruption like in Karnataka to turn public mood against the BJP
