Maverick Congress leader Phool Singh Baraiya who has been elected from the Bhander constituency in Madhya Pradesh symbolically blackened his face for going wrong on a poll prediction, in a dramatic event in capital Bhopal on Thursday. Baraiya had predicted that BJP won’t win more than 50 seats in the 2023 assembly polls.
BJP got 163 seats in the polls and Congress had to make do with just 66. Baraiya, however, blamed BJP’s misuse of EVM machines for going wrong on the prediction.
“I still have calculations that show if elections were fair, BJP wouldn’t have won more than 50 seats. My point is proven by the fact that in postal ballots, Congress won 199 seats while BJP managed only 31,” Baraiya said amidst a throng of supporters who raised slogans on saving the Indian constitution.
Citing the same point of postal ballots, ex-chief minister Digivijaya Singh, who was accompanying the MLA stopped Baraiya from fulfilling his promise of completely blackening his face. “Your prediction is proven by the postal ballots,” Singh said as he put black tilak on the MLA’s forehead and dots on his cheeks and chin ‘to ward off evil eyes of BJP people’.
Baraiya however insisted on smearing the dots on his cheeks, to ensure that his promise was fulfilled.
The dramatic scene unfolded at the centrally placed Roshanpura Square where Baraiya, Singh and supporters were stopped by the police from proceeding to Raj Bhavan. Baraiya had announced intention of blackening his face in front of the Raj Bhavan to keep his promise.
Before Singh’s intervention, Baraiya read out a statement saying that by blackening his face he wanted to send out a message that “the BJP people who had black heart and mind had managed to smear black the Indian constitution and democracy during the polls through their black deeds and black money. The BJP had actually smeared black public sentiments and welfare. They don’t see their own black deeds and aren’t ashamed that their leaders do not fulfill their promises. But I do what I say and these black marks on my face will write the script of banishment of BJP from power.”
Baraiya, a dalit leader in Gwalior-Chambal region, has an interesting political history. He was a prominent Bahujan Samaj Party leader two decades ago and has been a state president and MLA of the party. He was the one to establish a BSP base in the state and was considered quite close to BSP supremo Mayawati.
However, he had a bitter fallout with Mayawati and became a member of the Samta Samaj Party. Baraiya was also with BJP for a short time before floating his own Bahujan Sangharsh Dal. He finally joined the Congress a few years ago and was made a Rajya Sabha candidate in 2020, though he lost.
On Wednesday, a supporter of Baraiya – Yogesh Dandotia – had blackened his own face at a press conference in Gwalior saying that he won’t allow Baraiya’s face to be blackened and therefore was doing the act himself.
The BJP has taken a dig at the turn of events. Spokesperson Narendra Saluja tweeted “Feudal mindset of Congress exposed once again... Raja Digvijaya Singh ji blackened the face of a dalit leader Phool Singh Baraiya. Today’s programme was actually no less than a show of strength. It seemed that this program was not being organised to blacken the face (of Baraiya) but to pitch candidature for the new state president of Congress and leader of opposition.