BHOPAL: For the two consecutive days at the State Assembly Monsoon Session, the opposition Congress took up the issues pertaining to tribals and other backward class (OBC), which together constitute around 75% of the state population.
The Congress strategically kept the issues of the STs and the OBCs in the House and also outside looking at the impending by-polls elections to the vacant three Assemblies and one Lok Sabha seats and the urban local body elections.
In the state the Assembly seats of Raigoan, Prathivipur and Jobat have fallen vacant following the demise of the elected legislators. The three MLAs died of Covid-19. The sitting MP of Khandwa Lok Sabha seat Nandkumar Singh had also fallen prey to the infection. The by elections to these four seats are slated for coming months.
Besides, the civic body elections are also on the card. Out of 407 local bodies, elections to 347 are pending. These 347 urban bodies include all 16 municipal corporations.
Political pundits claim that Congress has hit its two targets – the Tribals and the OBCs, and are able to send a message loud and clear that ‘it is their real well wisher’.
The Congress also tried to portray the BJP government as a ‘bad-man’ during their demonstration in the House. On Monday, MLAs walked out of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly after their demand to declare 'World Tribal Day' a government holiday was not accepted by the Speaker. Terming the government ‘anti tribals’ , the MLAs said the previous Congress government in the state under Kamal Nath had declared August 9, which is celebrated as World Tribal Day, a government holiday but the BJP government that took over in March last year scrapped the move.
The party members also took out a rally from the PCC office in support of Tribal Day.
Responding to his allegations Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said BJP was the only party which cared for the tribal people. He said, “August 9 is a restricted holiday but Birsa Munda (a legendary tribal freedom fighter)’s death anniversary falls on November 15 when a number of programmes would mark the day.”
However, the CM’s assertion did not stop the Congress MLAs to walkout from the assembly, thus making a point that Congress was the real friend and well wisher of the tribals.
On the second day, Congress MLAs raised the issue of OBC reservation in the house. They wore banners and for around one hour the opposition legislators kept on raising slogans against the government on the reservation issue.
Kamleshwar Patel said that the government was not representing their stands in the Court and as a result OBC youths were not getting the benefit of 27 per cent reservation as decided by the Congress government. MLAs continued demanding a discussion on the OBC reservation in the House.
Although replying to the allegations, chief minister Chouhan calling Kamal Nath a ‘betrayer’, alleged that the Congress government did not put the claims properly before the Court and this has led to the present situation.
BJP leaders meet to chalk out strategy to counter Congress
Chief minister called a meeting of ministers and the MLAs on Tuesday evening to chalk out a
strategy to counter the allegations of the Congress. Other Backward Class (OBC) constituted the largest part of the state population accounting for more than 54 per cent, while Tribals constitute 22 per cent of the population. If Congress strategy works and it succeeds in sending the message across these two categories, the ruling party BJP definitely has a tough task ahead.
