Singh’s Narmada Yatra helped the Congress in MP; Jogi’s party did ‘well’ in polls.
NEW DELHI: Digvijaya Singh and Ajit Jogi share many a similarity even as they are ageing. Both had lost their chief ministerial positions in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh respectively way back in 2003 when they were in Congress. Fifteen years later, the party has managed to recapture power in the two states and both leaders have proved their mettle, though Singh is still in the party and Jogi has floated his own.
Congress victory in Madhya Pradesh is mostly attributed to the two Yatras undertaken prior to the polls—the Narmada Yatra that Singh first undertook for six months and the Samanwaya Yatra that Kamal Nath later undertook soon after taking over as the party’s state president in April this year. Both the central leadership and party workers in the state admit that the ground work done by the two leaders during their Yatras connected the party to the grassroots.
This ultimately helped resolve factionalism in the party and managed to somehow dislodge the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in the state. According to the party’s state leaders, Singh did all the leg work while staying behind the curtains and by letting Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia become the face of the Congress campaign.
“One-to-one contact with villagers, that too if a leader is going to meet them on foot, brings in a lot of positive reaction from the voters. That is what Singh did. For the first time in years, a ‘big’ Congress leader visited the villages, spoke to the villagers and heard them without expecting anything from them. This played a huge role in generating goodwill for us. During both the Yatras, he rekindled the relationship between the party and the rural voters,” explained a party spokesperson.
He recalled an incident in Sehore district, where Singh just heard, without interfering, the rants of a senior party worker who was angry over the indifference the Congress had treated him with. When the worker ended his outbursts after 5-6 minutes, Singh embraced him and told him to work for the party for the last time and assured him that he would not be disappointed this time. Stunned by the response, the man happily nodded in affirmation.
Similarly, Singh also took care of Nath’s weakness of not being acquainted with the ground level party workers outside Chhindwara region. After winning the elections, Singh publicly admitted that it was Nath who had helped him become Chief Minister in 1993, and he was just returning the gesture.
Party sources revealed how Singh won over several mid-level BSP workers in Bundelkhand region and thereby managed to limit the damage Mayawati’s party could do to Congress. “He was given the responsibility of assuaging the anger of the rebels, most of whom were his supporters between 1993 and 2003, and bringing them back into party. No one could say ‘no’ to him. It is true that Nath was the face of the party, but it was Singh who did all the leg work and micro-management at the booth level,” said another party functionary, who had turned rebel, but returned to the party fold later.
Party leaders and those who have worked with Singh, said that his friendly relations with farmers, tribals, Dalits and Muslim leaders have stood the test of time, which helped Congress win this closely-fought elections.
“His understanding of issues of Dalits, Muslims, tribals and the rural poor helped the party. His grounded approach and habit of ensuring that he meets each and everyone who comes to meet him, generated a lot of positivity on the ground level,” said Bhopal-based party leader Anshul Trivedi, who worked closely with Singh during the campaigning.
Despite Singh announcing that he would not interfere in state politics for 10 years, after he had lost the elections in 2003, no leader was able to match his reach among the workers and could emerge in the state despite the party giving ample opportunity to leaders like Suresh Pachouri, Ajay Singh and Arun Yadav.
“Both Shivraj and Singh are grounded politicians and they can walk for miles while on a Yatra, unlike other leaders who prefer to take a car to interact with voters. Singh reached out to the voters in rural areas not just through the rallies, but also by visiting their villages,” said a Bhopal-based journalist.
“There was ample scope for the new leaders in the last 15 years to make a mark and create a space for themselves, but they were not able to do so. When Singh decided to re-enter politics, he started by travelling on foot for 192 days during the Narmada Yatra, covering over 3,000 km and interacted with workers and voters of more than 140 districts. Who among the present leaders can do that?” asked a newly elected MLA.
Sources close to Singh stated that the 71-year-old leader will continue to focus on Madhya Pradesh. In fact, he has already started working on the 2019 elections with the aim to win at least 18-20 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats.
State BJP leaders, on the other hand, accepted the failure on their part in containing the rebels, compared to the Congress, and admitted that it was one of the reasons for the party not being able to secure the number of seats required to form government in Bhopal.
Akin to Singh’s feat, Jogi in the neighbouring state, who formed his outfit Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) in June 2016 but was allotted a party symbol just two months before the elections, too, has resurrected his sagging fortunes when he was almost written off as a spent force by political pundits.
Jogi, who has been on wheel-chair for the last 14 years after he met with a road accident in April 2004, left the Congress alleging that the party’s state leaders had sidelined him and then de facto party president Rahul Gandhi was not doing anything to stop them.
Jogi’s party, which contested this election in alliance with BSP, won seven seats, while polling 11.5% of the total votes polled in the state and coming on third position after Congress and BJP which could win only on 15 seats.
According to some JCC leaders, the result could have been much better for the party if it did not have “Congress” in its name as it led to a lot of confusion among the voters.
“We came a close second in seven other seats and got more than 30% vote share in another 15 segments. In at least two of 11 Lok Sabha seats—Janjgir and Bilaspur—we have a higher vote share than both BJP and Congress. This is not a small feat. We had limited resources and funds. We barely managed to place quarter page advertisements in just five newspapers and were not able to do any TV or radio advertising at all,” Jogi’s son Amit, who managed the party’s campaign and did not contest the elections, told The Sunday Guardian.
“We spent less than 1% of what the national parties splurged in this election. Also, even now, most voters identify Jogi with Congress. Given that our party’s name is somewhat similar to that of Congress, it cost us a few seats. For the first time, we have witnessed the birth of a recognised regional party in Chhattisgarh,” Amit said with a sense of satisfaction.
According to a Chhattisgarh-based IPS officer, who dealt with intelligence inputs related to political activities in the state during the elections, Congress in the last few days of the campaign managed to create a perception through media management that Jogi’s party was a sinking ship and this led a few of its leaders desert the party and a large number of its voters deciding to vote for Congress.
“This last-minute smart political move by Congress dented Jogi’s prospects and there was little time left for him to repair the damage. The intelligence assessment was that they were going to win on 12-15 seats, but because of this maneuvering, they could not achieve that number,” the officer said.