Bhopal: With the Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh inching closer, the state unit of the Congress led by former Chief Minister Kamal Nath seems to be leaving no stone unturned to retrieve lost ground in Vindhya region.
The party is looking for strong contenders to maximize the possibilities for winning maximum seats in neck-to-neck fight with the ruling BJP, which had won 24 out 30 Assembly seats in 2018 in this region.
In the process, the Congress has inducted former BSP MLA Sheela Tyagi, who had won the Mangawan seat (in Rewa district) with 34 per cent votes in 2013. She was given the best MLA award for raising the highest number of questions and debating over Bills in the state Assembly for two consecutive years — 2016 and 2017. BJP’s Panchulal Prajapati had won Mangawan Assembly seats securing 49 per cent votes against Congress (Babita Saket) 35 per cent in 2018.
In fact, the BJP had won all eight Assembly seats in Rewa, despite it used to be a strong base of the Congress till a decade ago — during the era of ex-speaker (late) Sriniwas Tiwari. Rewa’s Mangawa seat where Congress and BJP had always been in a neck-to-neck fight, was represented by two Assembly Speakers — Sriniwas Tiwari (1993-2003) during the 10 years of the Digvijaya Singh-led Congress government.
The present Assembly Speaker, Girish Gautam had also contested two Assembly elections from Mangawa — first in 1993 (then he was in CPI) and had lost against Congress’ Sriniwas Tiwari. In 2003, Gautam joined the BJP and defeated old political rival Tiwari. In 2008, Mangawa Assembly seat, which has the highest vote share of Brahmins (up to 55 per cent) was reserved for Scheduled Caste, and Gautam shifted to Devtalab.
Sheela Tyagi’s shifting into the Congress will undoubtedly give an edge to the grand old party due to various reasons, but more because of high anti-incumbency against sitting BJP MLA Panchulal Prajapati. The people of Mangawa are angry with the sitting MLA and even the BJP was trying to induct Tyagi.
After joining the Congress, during a conversation with IANS, Tyagi said, “I was approached by BJP’s top leadership also. But, my ideology does not match with the BJP. It may be that the Congress has been struggling for the past few years, but it has maintained its basic route of democracy, which is why I joined the Congress.”
When asked if the Congress leadership had promised her the ticket, Tyagi said, “I am happy to work under the leadership of Kamal Nath, and I have already achieved a lot by joining the Congress. Meanwhile, party leadership also said the decision on ticket would be taken on the basis of survey reports, and I am fully confident that people of Mangawa will support me because I have served them honestly for years, even after losing in 2018.”
A Rewa-based political analyst claimed that Tyagi’s shifting from BSP to the Congress will undoubtedly increase the possibility of winning Mangawa, if she contests the election. Former Assembly Speaker Sriniwas Tiwari is no more now, but he has made a strong base for the Congress and the people of Mangawa still support his grandson, Siddharth Tiwari (Raj) who had contested the Lok Sabha election. However, he lost against BJP’s Janardan Mishra. His father Sundarlal Tiwari, who died in 2019, also was an ex-MP (1999-2004) from Rewa.
Importantly, Tyagi was inducted into the Congress a week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to arrive in Rewa, during which he would address a mega rally beside launching several projects for the Vindhya region.
Bordered by eastern Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, it was the Vindhya region which prevented Congress from returning to power on its own after 15 years in the 2018 Assembly polls and also gave the BJP the respectable number to topple the Kamal Nath government with Jyotiraditya Scindia’s help just 15 months later in Madhya Pradesh.
Knowing that Vindhya is important for its 2023 poll plan, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has since the last few months been zeroing on that region only with focused announcements/initiatives. They include MP’s longest tunnel between Rewa and Sidhi districts, laying foundation of much awaited full-fledged Rewa Airport, announcing Bhopal-Singrauli Vindhya Expressway and incentives for Kols (the largest tribal group of Vindhya region).
–IANS