‘CM Chouhan is isolated within his own party... BJP is not working like a team’
Bhopal:
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who turns 72 in February, is engaged in another big election of his political career spanning nearly half a century. He was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh from 1993 to 2003 and led the Congress’s state unit for seven years. By his own admission, he played a distant role in the last two assembly polls in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained power. He is now a part of the party’s formidable senior leadership along with state Congress chief Kamal Nath and campaign committee chairman Jyotiraditya Scindia. In the role of coordinator, Singh’s task is to quell dissidence and mobilise cadres. He spoke to Vinod
Sharma about what is working for the Congress going into the elections, anti-incumbency against the BJP, and the unity within his own party. Edited excerpts:
The elections are a couple of weeks away. What’s your prediction as a psephologist, not as a politician?
I don’t believe in psephology. The sample size of such surveys is so small that it’s impossible to forecast the outcome. More important to me is the feel I have of the ground realities. The feedback I receive from my workers and contacts gives me the real sense of what’s on the ground.
So what’s your prognosis?
In the 2008 and 2013 assembly elections, I wasn’t really involved in the campaign and didn’t really know what was happening. But this time, after my [six-month-long] Narmada Parikrama and my outreach as the chairman of the party’s coordination committee, in the course of which I covered 194 assembly constituencies, I can tell you that we are forming the government. My assessment is as much based on a comparative analysis of our final list of candidates and that of the BJP.
Will your party form the government by a comfortable majority?
By a majority.
What factors are working for you and against the BJP?
Anti-incumbency against BJP MLAs, ministers, and to some extent the chief minister [Shivraj Singh Chauhan] besides the overall anti-incumbency against the government, which is rooted in corruption. It is the most corrupt government, in which politicians and bureaucrats are looting the state and sharing the booty.
Your party is better off in rural areas but isn’t perceived to be on a good wicket in urban centers. How do you explain the contrast if antiincumbency is as strong as you’re claiming?
The Congress was always weak in urban areas and strong in rural areas, with the exception of the 2009 Parliament elections. At that time, we did well in urban centers due to successful implementation of the economic policies of Dr Manmohan Singh. His image and that of Mrs Sonia Gandhi made a great combination. It helped us win most of the urban seats.
What’s your tally for the urban seats this time?
I can’t give you numbers. I can only say that Madhya Pradesh is basically a rural state where the ratio of rural-urban seats is almost seven to three.
There’s a perception that Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath will come and turn the tide in the BJP’s favour the way the PM did in the Gujarat polls. Some analysts think the Congress’s best case scenario in MP is to replicate Gujarat: so near yet so far.
The BJP’s sole agenda is to communalise the election. I am told they are going to have an “agrah” [exhortation] rally in Ayodhya for the construction of Ram mandir. They’ll have a national broadcast [of the rally] on all channels three days before the polling in MP. And you know what’s going to happen thereafter…
How do you intend to counter that?
The Congress party should take it up with the Election Commission so that at least this rally is not broadcast in election-bound states.
But even the Congress manifesto talks about a host of issues that would appeal to the majority Hindu community. On first reading, some people have found it to be a photocopy of sorts of the BJP’s election promises.
I don’t agree. You are looking at less than 5% of the issues the manifesto has touched. Most of our promises are for the farmers, the youth, the poor, the working class and other weaker sections on a plethora of issues such as health, malnutrition, education, employment. It is unfair to highlight a mere five percent of what we’ve pledged.
The other day you said Jyotiraditya Scindia was like your son. That’s something that goes without saying because you’ve been a contemporary of his late father, Madhavrao Scindia. Why did you emphasise the point?
Because the media was playing up that we had a spat; that we are working against each other, which is not correct.
Is there good coordination between you, Scindia and Kamal Nath?
› It is the most corrupt government, in which politicians and bureaucrats are looting the state and sharing the booty... Our advantage is that people are fed up with 15 years of BJP rule; every section of society is unhappy.
Yes. Not only between the three of us but everyone in the top position. [legislature party leader] Ajay Singh and former PCC chiefs Arun Yadav, Kantilal Bhuria and Suresh Pachauri - we all are together.
A united leadership is good news. What else makes you optimistic?
Our advantage is that people are fed up with 15 years of BJP rule; every section of society is unhappy. The ruling party’s campaign is Shivraj-centric but the CM is isolated within his own party. The BJP is not working like a team.
You’re trying to show the CM as a general without foot soldiers.
To a certain extent, yes, but he’s short of comrades in arm. A General needs….
Good advisors in higher echelons?
Not just advisors but fighters in the second and the third tier.
How is that possible? It’s unusual if what you’re saying is true.
It’s because his campaign is self-centric. If you saw his Jan Ashirwad Yatra, you’d have noticed that most of the party leaders kept away from it. I cannot say why that happened. It’s an internal matter of the BJP. I can only say that he stands isolated.
Which are the regions in which the Congress hopes to do better than the BJP?
We will certainly improve our position in all regions. Even supporters of the Bahujan Samaj Party [which doesn’t have an alliance with the Congress in the state] are coming to us in the Gwalior, Morena, Sagar and Reva divisions. They feel the BSP doesn’t stand a chance to form the government, so why waste the vote?
Other factors may work for the Congress, but you’re abysmally short of resources. How do you make do on that front against a cashrich BJP?
If people are with you, money doesn’t matter.
You mean people will be led by issues, not by leaders with money power?
Yes. Jan bal [people’s power] will win against dhan bal [money power].
Are you sure? If your prediction goes wrong, one may have to rethink about your expertise on Madhya Pradesh.
[Laughs]… Yes, you have that option!