Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Congress was able to win 66 seats in the assembly election because of the support the party got in the tribal areas of the state. Now, the party is heavily counting on the tribal votes for the Lok Sabha election. Out of 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP, six are reserved for SC/ST candidates. These seats are – Mandla, Shahdol, Betul, Khargone, Dhar and Ratlam. The Congress is paying full attention to these seats.
Mandla and Shahdol are going to polls in the first phase. The party is trying to woo the tribal voters in these constituencies. Out of 47 assembly seats reserved for ST candidates, the BJP got 24 seats and the Congress 22. One seat went to another political outfit. Because the Congress got 45% of seats in tribal areas, it assumes that the party will do well in these segments. There is no wave of Ram temple in the tribal areas where local issues are more dominant than the national ones.
The voters of the general category appear to be in favour of the BJP which feels the ‘Modi wave’ will have an impact on the tribal voters which can benefit them. The ruling party, which is depending on the ‘Modi wave,’ is not making any efforts to woo tribal people for the Lok Sabha election. In the tribal areas, the Congress is getting the support of Jay Adiwasi Yuva shakti (JAYS), a youth organisation of the tribal people. But the candidates of the Gondwana Gantantra Party are damaging the prospects of the Congress.
The Congress is also making it public that the BJP is depriving the tribal people of their original culture. Party leader Rahul Gandhi made a trip to Mandla. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the Congress won four of the six seats reserved for the ST candidates. The party won Mandla, Shahdol, Dhar and Ratlam seats, but in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress did not get a single seat reserved for the ST candidates. In a by-election in 2015, the party won the Ratlam seat. The BJP has fielded all the present MPs from the four tribal constituencies. But the party did not give tickets to its MPs in Dhar and Ratlam, and, instead, fielded fresh candidates from these two constituencies. On the other hand, the Congress has fielded its legislators from Mandla and Shahdol.
