Due to the veteran Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh, his party seems to be stuck in trouble this time. In fact, for the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on June 19, the BJP has made such a political bet, which has led to a well and a backward gap for the Congress leadership. Actually, there are elections for three seats, in which two seats have been vacated by BJP and in one seat Digvijay was an MP and this time he is also tapping the election field. Even in this election, there is no problem in getting two seats for the BJP and one for the Congress. But, the screw is getting stuck with the second Congress candidate, which is being made by the BJP and the Congress is out to answer.
Digvijay's victory will also lead to Congress 'defeat'
According to the strength of the number of MLAs in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly, out of the three seats in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress seems to get only one seat. But, the party has still fielded two of its candidates. The party has declared Digvijay Singh as its first preference candidate, while well-known Dalit leader Phool Singh Baraiya of Gwalior-Chambal division has been fielded as the second preference candidate. The BJP has framed the Congress politically on this issue. Former state minister and party MLA Gopal Bhargava has said that Congress should give first preference to Phool Singh Baraiya over Digvijay as he comes from Scheduled Caste. In such a situation, if Baraiya definitely reaches Rajya Sabha, the representation of Dalits in the upper house will increase.
Whereas, Digvijay has already been in the Rajya Sabha and has graced the post of Chief Minister. Not only Gopal Bhargava's statement but seems to be a part of the political strategy as a whole. It is not easy for the Congress leadership to make Digvijay Singh unhappy and if Baraiya fails to reach the Rajya Sabha, he may remain calm, but in the coming assembly by-elections, BJP can defeat the Congress by running the Dalit card. The party has already started its preparations. Bhargava is saying, Digvijay is using Baraiya as Stepney, Digvijay Singh has made Phool Singh Baraiya a secondary candidate. In fact, the BJP is eyeing 16 seats out of the 24 bypolls in the Gwalior-Chambal division of the assembly.
There was a big beating in the assembly elections held in December 2018. Baraiya comes from this area and in such a situation the BJP can try to reverse the situation by creating an air of neglect of Dalits in Congress. Elections are currently being held for 3 Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, two of which were vacated by the completion of the tenure of senior BJP leaders Prabhat Jha and Satyanarayana Jatiya. While Digvijay held the third seat and his term has also been completed. Now the BJP has nominated former minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from Congress as the first preference candidate, while Sumer Singh Solanki has been fielded in the second preference.
Based on the current mathematics of the assembly, the victory of these two is confirmed. Later, out of the 24 assembly seats where by-elections are to be held, 22 are Congress-based rebels, who have held the saffron BJP along with Scindia. At present, in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly, up to 24 seats are vacant, out of which 22 seats are vacant due to the resignation of Congress MLAs and the death of 2 MLAs. Due to this, the number of Congress MLAs has come down from 114 to just 92. Whereas, BJP has a total of 107 MLAs. Apart from these, there are 4 independents, two BSP and one SP MLA. The ruling party seems to be more likely to get the support of most of these MLAs.
