Central Madhya Pradesh: A BJP Stronghold Under Challenge

The central region of Madhya Pradesh, which includes the state capital Bhopal and other neighboring towns, has been a BJP stronghold during the last thirty years, despite the feisty Congress party hoping to make a return there in Friday's state elections.

The opposition Congress believes it has learned from its errors and asserts that the outcomes would be different in the area this time, while the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) argues it has gained ground in its bastion and has operated in accordance with socio-political equations.

According to a political expert, the BJP is expected to maintain its control in the area this time around.

The Bhopal and Narmadapuram revenue divisions comprise the core part of the state, which is sometimes referred to as "central India" by certain individuals. Its eight districts—Bhopal (7), Vidisha (5), Rajgarh (5), Sehore (4), Raisen (4), Narmadapuram (4), Harda (2), and Betul (5)—are home to its 36 assembly seats.

In this area, the BJP held 30 seats in 2013.

It has 24 MLAs in the area after the 2018 assembly elections, compared to the Congress's 12 MLAs.

In various directions, this region touches the regions of Malwa, Bundelkhand, Mahakaushal, and Gwalior-Chambal. Two of the state's regions, Nimar and Vindhya, are not directly linked to the core area.

Budhni, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's assembly seat, is located in the central area.

This time, the Congress is running veteran BJP politician Chouhan against actor Vikram Mastal, who portrayed Hanuman in a television series.

In 2019, the Samajwadi Party nominated Mirchi Baba, who used chilies to execute a "hawan" in order to defeat Congress candidate Digvijaya Singh for the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat.

Another significant seat, Bhojpur in Raisen district, which is outside of Bhopal, has been held by the BJP since 1982, with the exception of 2003, when Congressman Rajesh Patel beat MLA Surendra Patwa.

This constituency was won four times by BJP mainstay and former chief minister, Surendra Patwa's father, Sundarlal Patwa. From this position, Surendra Patwa is back in the mix.

Due to the rivalry between two brothers, Sitasharan Sharma (BJP) and Girijashankar Sharma (Congress), the race for the Hoshangabad seat has also become more intriguing.

In yet another family feud in this area, incumbent BJP MLA Sanjay Shah is running for re-election from the Timarni seat in the Harda district against his nephew, Congress contender Abhijeet Shah.

State ministers from this area are also involved, notably Kamal Patel (Harda), Prabhuram Choudhary (Sanchi), and Vishwas Sarang (Bhopal-Narela).

This was the only area from which Arif Masood (Bhopal Central) and Arif Aqueel (Bhopal North) were elected as Muslim leaders in the previous elections.

This time, Atif, the son of Aqueel, and Masood, the current MLA, are running for Congress seats from Bhopal North and Bhopal Central, respectively.

Senior writer Girija Shankar told PTI that Madhya Pradesh was created by combining previous states with various political influences.

Although Bhopal state gained independence later, he said that the RSS concentrated on Sehore, Ashta, Bhopal, and the adjacent territories, which helped the Jan Sangh and eventually the BJP gain clout in this region.

"The BJP's dominance is likely to continue, and the situation seems to be the same this time too," he said.

State BJP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal said that prior to this, his party's errors cost them a few seats in the central region's Betul and Rajgarh districts.

"The party has fixed these errors this time. It has gained more ground in this BJP stronghold and operated in accordance with sociopolitical dynamics in the divisions of Bhopal and Narmadapuram, the speaker said.

In this area, the MP Congress has not performed well, and head of the media department KK Mishra blamed this on the "weak organisational set up." "The Congress has learned from its failures and tightened its organizational structure all the way up to the booth level this time. This time, the outcomes in these 36 seats will be different," he said.

The 230-member Madhya Pradesh parliament will hold polling on Friday, and on December 3, the results will be tallied.