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Congress drubbed in civic polls in MP

Rahul Singh in Bhopal

The ruling Congress has received a set-back in Madhya Pradesh in the just concluded civic elections, with the party managing to install its mayors only in five corporations. Its main rival - the Bharatiya Janata Party - has done much better winning 18 mayoral positions.

The Congress lags behind the BJP in overall results too. While the Congress candidates could win in only 820 of the total 2,183 wards, the BJP captured 919 of them.

The saffron flag flew high in urban panchayats too, although election to these local self government bodies were not held on party lines. The BJP backed candidates managed to win 122 urban panchayats, while the Congress came a poor second with wins in 104 urban panchayats.

The defeat has come as a major embarrassment to Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, who was riding a crest after proving the sceptics wrong by retaining power in the last assembly polls. The only consolation for the chief minister, perhaps, is the uniformity of the Congress' poor performance all over the state, including areas considered strongholds of his rivals within the party.

The party has been quick to point at rebellion within the party as the main reason for its lacklustre performance. Leaders have pointed out that if the number of victorious rebel candidates were to be taken into account, than the party's tally would stand improved considerably.

Meanwhile, direct mayoral elections - where people elect their mayor, instead of letting their corporators do it for them - have thrown up some strange verdicts. For instance while the Congress mayoral candidates won in Bhopal and Jabalpur, the BJP has more corporators in both the houses.

On the other hand, in five municipal corporations where the Congress is in majority, the BJP has managed to win the mayor's post. This is bound to create problems in the long running with the mayor and the majority party in the corporation pulling in different directions.

For the Congress the elections have left only bitter memories which would hound the party for a long time to come. Ugly intra-party conflicts came out in the open over tickets distribution. So much so that senior party leaders - Arjun Singh, Kamal Nath and Subhash Yadav - resigned from the selection committee entrusted with the task of ticket distribution.

In fact, the problem became so acute that the party decided not nominate even a single candidate in Bhopal and Indore.

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