The Congress candidates who appeared before the committee cited several reasons for their poor performance, including infighting, delay in ticket distribution, long-running speculation about Kamal Nath quitting the Congress, the last-minute launch of the ‘Laadli Behna’ scheme by the Shivraj government.
,MP is amazing, it is the most amazing,
There is a popular saying about Madhya Pradesh – ‘MP Gajab Hai, Sabse Ajab Hai’. This saying came to mind recently when Chief Minister Mohan Yadav inducted a sitting Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat into his cabinet as a cabinet minister. The saying came to mind because in the assembly elections held last year, the BJP had won an absolute majority by winning 164 seats in the 230-member House, while the Congress was far behind with 66 seats. The party (and its beloved media) could not find any answer to the sarcasm of state Congress president Jitu Patwari that a government with such a huge mandate was forced to include a sitting Congress MLA in its cabinet while ignoring senior BJP leaders like Gopal Bhargava.
Six-time Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat was angry because the party did not consider his name for the post of Leader of Opposition or State President. However, he is accused of helping the current Speaker and former Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar win. Talking to the media, Rawat said that he would resign at the ‘right time’. There are seven ministers in the BJP government who were once in the Congress and apart from this, the example of Sachin Birla is also in his favor. Congress MLA Sachin Birla joined the BJP in 2021 but retained his seat in the Assembly till November 2023. Since the Speaker’s decision cannot normally be challenged in court, there seems to be no reason for Rawat to fear.
It is difficult to understand the compulsions of BJP
Although Rawat’s decision to switch sides can be understood, it is difficult to understand the compulsions of the BJP to include him. Rawat has publicly compared the RSS to the Taliban and called it a terrorist group. He had no hesitation in expressing his displeasure even when Jyotiraditya Scindia left the Congress while Madhavrao Scindia used to be Rawat’s mentor. There are many senior BJP MLAs like Gopal Bhargava who have been MLAs nine times. They are angry with the neglect. Babulal Mewara of Vijaypur, former minister Ajay Vishnoi and Kusum Mahadele are expressing their frustration. This indicates that although Madhya Pradesh has been an RSS stronghold for a long time, the BJP is severely lacking leaders who can contest and win elections.
Do we need assemblies?
State legislative assemblies are gradually getting shorter with little or no opposition and no interference from governors. In such a scenario, who would be surprised if the budget session of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly was adjourned after just five days? The session, which ran till July 19, did not even get a chance to discuss the budget provisions as the budget was presented on July 8 and the session was adjourned the very next day. The same old excuse that the irresponsible opposition is not allowing the House to function.
Governments running away from discussion
This time the opposition was demanding the resignation of cabinet minister Vishwas Sarang. Earlier he was in charge of medical education and a CBI inquiry is currently underway into his alleged role in the nursing college scam. It is alleged that hundreds of nursing colleges were being allowed to operate without the necessary approval. Instead of giving a satisfactory statement or allowing a discussion in this matter, the session was concluded. The budget was considered passed by voice vote and on the basis of the government’s majority. No one cared that the MLAs were not given a chance to study and discuss the budget provisions.
According to PRS Legislative Research, the session of Madhya Pradesh Assembly lasted an average of 33 days annually between 2009 and 2013. Between 2014 and 2018, it was 27 days on average and between 2019 and 2023, the assembly met for barely 16 days a year. Talking about the last three years, the assembly met for 14 days in 2023, 15 days in 2022 and 20 days in 2021. In a total of 49 days in these three years, 74 bills were passed.
Shocking statistics of passing of bills
There are some more shocking facts related to this on the PRS website: ‘In 2021, 44 percent of the bills were passed on the day of introduction or the next day. Between January 2018 and September 2022, the Gujarat Legislative Assembly introduced 92 bills (excluding appropriation bills). Of these, 91 were passed on the day they were introduced. In the 2022 monsoon session, the Goa Legislative Assembly passed 28 bills in a span of two days. This is in addition to the discussion and voting on budgetary allocations to various government departments. The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly took an average of 12 minutes to discuss and pass 10 bills in the August 2022 session. The Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly took only five minutes to discuss each bill in the session convened in November 2022.’ In view of this, does the question not arise whether there is even a need for state assemblies?
face the truth
The committee sent by the Congress president to assess the reasons for the party’s electoral defeat in Madhya Pradesh was the result of which a lot of speculations could be made as to why it happened. In the meeting, 29 Lok Sabha candidates were called for a meeting with the three-member committee and it included former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Odisha MP Saptagiri Shankar Ulaka and Gujarat MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani. Former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh joined the meeting online. Those who joined the BJP after losing the election naturally did not attend the meeting. The committee was told that what happened in Mhow last year is a great example of the mistakes of the Congress.
question on judgement
Last year, the Congress fielded a turncoat named Ram Kishore Shukla from Mhow (now Dr. Ambedkar Nagar) in the assembly elections. The party did not give ticket to senior leader Antar Singh Darbar and an angry Darbar contested the election as an independent candidate. It is another matter that he lost despite getting 31.37 percent votes while Shukla, the official candidate of the Congress, got only 13.33 percent of the total votes. What was even more humiliating for the party was that he not only immediately joined the BJP, but openly said, ‘I am an RSS worker and joined the Congress on the instructions of the Sangh. The Sangh had told me to help the BJP win after getting the ticket.’
Soft Hindutva harmed the party
The Congress candidates who appeared before the committee cited several reasons for their poor performance: infighting, delay in ticket distribution, long-running speculation about Kamal Nath quitting the Congress, the last-minute launch of the ‘Laadli Behna’ scheme by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. The candidates also complained that they did not get the necessary support from senior leaders. It was also said that the ‘soft Hindutva’ approach adopted by some leaders also harmed the party.
Some cited the Congress’ inability to identify and promote leaders from all classes and castes. They felt the RSS had done a better job in the state. It was suggested that the Congress should not back down from its old stand of ‘sarva dharma samman’. A leader from the Vindhya region is said to have bluntly told the committee: ‘If you ask a thief to identify another thief, it will be of no use.’
