Already engaged in a fierce one-upmanship battle over OBC communities, the BJP and Congress in Madhya Pradesh have also renewed their efforts to woo the key tribal population in the state with a long-term sight on 2023 Assembly polls and the immediate goal of winning imminent by-elections and civic bodies polls.
The Congress held an Adiwasi Adhikar evam Jan Aakrosh Yatra (tribal rights and public resentment rally) in tribal-dominated Barwani on Monday in presence of MP Congress chief and ex-chief minister Kamal Nath and other senior leaders of the party. The Congress claimed that more than 50,000 tribal people in the region participated in the rally while another 25,000 were illegally stopped by the administration from attending.
The rally was organised to protest the constantly increasing cases of violence against tribal people, decision of the state government to do away with holiday on world tribal day and violation of basic rights of the tribal people.
The event came ahead of the proposed visit of Home Minister Amit Shah to Jabalpur on September 18 to participate in a programme to mark the martyring of tribal ruler Shankar Shah and his son Raghunath Shah during the 1857-58 uprising against the British. The BJP will also launch a ‘Janjatiya samaj jodo abhiyan’ (campaign to unite tribal communities) on the occasion.
Meanwhile, as a counter to the Congress rally on Monday, the BJP launched a ‘dhoka-yatra’ (deceit rally) campaign on the social media, targeting the Congress for failing to take any steps for welfare of tribal people during its long running rule of 60 years in the country and during its 15-month recent government in the state. Ministers, members of parliaments and a string of BJP state spokespersons, took up the campaign on social media aggressively.
The Congress, meanwhile, released a three-minute video charting out the steps taken by the 15-month Congress government for welfare of tribal people including waiver of loans taken from moneylenders, monetary support to women groups, setting up of sports complexes, new schools and community centres, declaring holiday on world tribal day and so on.
Recently, the Congress had taken up the issue of cancellation of public holiday on world tribal day in the State Assembly and also sent out a delegation for fact finding on the incident in Neemuch where a tribal man was tied to a vehicle and dragged to death.
The two major parties in the state vying to woo the tribal populace is an expected move due to the fact that over 21 per cent of the state population is tribal and 47 out of 230 Assembly seats are reserved for them. They also influence about 31 more seats.
Before 2003, Congress had a unilateral hold over the tribal voters, but things changed in favour of BJP for 15 years with tribal votes shifting to the saffron party. However, the 2018 Assembly elections once again saw the Congress win 31 of the 47 seats – a major chunk that gave it key to power after a gap of 15 years. Both the parties are thus well aware of the key role played by the tribal voters in shifting of power and are taking steps well ahead of 2023 to woo them.
Speaking at the rally on Monday, Kamal Nath called upon the tribal people not to live in fear. He said that Congress was strongly in support of tribal people and would continue to struggle for their issues and when Congress returned to power in 2023, full justice would be done to the community.
He also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan always engaged in mere theatrics and not actual welfare activities and once again took a jibe at Chouhan, asking him to go to Mumbai to start an acting career. Nath also reiterated that Chouhan never used his eyes or ears (did not hear or see woes of people) and just kept his mouth open (to make false promises). Nath also once again warned the government officials against playing on BJP ground (in context of preventing people from attending the rally) and said that their records were being kept and people would make them accountable once Congress was back in power.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, state BJP chief Vishnu Dutt Sharma said that the rally held by Kamal Nath was a deceit rally and Nath remembered the tribal people only when elections were close. Rather, he (Nath) should answer about violation of tribal rights during the 15-month government.
“Before Assembly polls, Kamal Nath ji made lots of promises to lure the tribal people but cheated them once in power? What steps were taken by his government for development of the tribal regions? Rather Nath also stopped the welfare schemes of the BJP government meant for tribal people and never paid attention to great tribal personalities like Birsa Munda, Tantya Bhil, Shankar Shah and Raghunath Shah. Isn’t Congress and Kamal Nath insulting Bhagwan Birsa Munda by opposing the decision of the state government to give a public holiday on his birth anniversary (November 15). We will celebrate the day as tribal honour day (Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas) and I invite Kamal Nath to participate in it,” Sharma said.
