MP Assembly Election 2023 / Congress started 'PDA formula' in MP - Akhilesh Yadav kept planning

MP Assembly Election 2023: In Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Congress has announced the names of candidates for 144 seats on the very first day of Navratri. Along with laying the political chessboard in the state through the candidates, Congress has also taken the gamble of solving the caste equation. Congress has adopted the strategy of making inroads into the upper caste and OBC political base of BJP by keeping its core vote bank Dalits and tribals firmly attached, so that the script of returning to power can be written.

The new social engineering of the party can be clearly understood from the way Congress has given special attention to PDA i.e. Backward-Dalit-Tribal candidates in its first list. Not only this, Congress has also taken special care of its traditional voters, the upper caste community. In such a situation, it remains to be seen whether Congress State President Kamal Nath will be able to win power in MP by defeating Shivraj Singh Chouhan led BJP?

Congress's social engineering

In the list so far, Congress has fielded the maximum number of candidates from upper caste, followed by OBC and ST-SC communities. Congress has fielded 52 candidates from the upper caste community in the list of 144 candidates, in which 22 are from the Thakur community, 18 from the Brahmin community, 5 from the Jain community and 7 from other upper caste communities. 39 candidates have been fielded from different OBC castes, tickets have been given to Scheduled Tribe candidates on 30 seats, while candidates from Dalit community have been fielded on 22 seats.

Congress has fielded only one Muslim candidate in the first list while there are six minority candidates. The party has also included 19 women in its list of 144 candidates. Expressing confidence in its current 69 MLAs, Congress has once again fielded them. Apart from this, Congress has fielded leaders from other parties on about 10 seats. To attract young voters, Congress has fielded 65 candidates below 50 years of age.

Congress's PDA formula in MP

In UP, Akhilesh Yadav is claiming to defeat BJP with the PDA formula, while in MP, Congress is setting the political equation with the PDA formula, but there is a difference between the PDA of Congress and SP. SP's PDA means backward, Dalit and minorities, while Congress's PDA means backward, Dalit and tribal. Congress has tried to implement the PDA formula in Madhya Pradesh through tickets. Congress has given 91 tickets to PDA out of 144 seats, of which 39 are backward, 22 are Dalit and 30 are tribal.

Congress is not playing the same PDA strategy in Madhya Pradesh, rather the mantra of winning and returning to power is also hidden behind it. The backward caste population in the state is 49 percent, followed by 15 percent Dalit and 21 percent tribal community. In this way, the vote of all three castes together is 85 percent. Dalits and tribals have an important role in the state and if Congress succeeds in including OBCs in it, then it is certain to return to power.

82 seats are reserved for Dalits and Tribals in Madhya Pradesh. In the 2013 elections, BJP had won 53 out of 82 reserved seats, whereas in 2018 it was reduced to 25 seats. Congress had won only 12 reserved seats in 2013, but in the 2018 elections it increased to 40 seats and was successful in forming the government.

This is the reason why Congress is trying to garner OBC votes along with Dalits and tribals, for which it is making caste census a big political weapon. Raising the slogan of social justice, Congress is waging a campaign of 'Whoever has as many partners as he has, as much as he has a share'. In this way, Congress is completely focused on fielding candidates keeping in mind the caste equation so that it can hoist the flag of victory?

Congress's focus on upper castes

Congress has given 52 tickets to the upper caste community, which is around 36 percent whereas in Madhya Pradesh their population is 15 percent. In this way, Congress has tried to give a political message to the upper caste voters by giving them more tickets than their population. Congress has been doing politics of upper caste community in Madhya Pradesh since the beginning, due to which all the Chief Ministers have been made from Thakur or Brahmin community, only Kamal Nath was the only CM, who was from Vaishya community. In such a situation, Congress has tried to tap its core vote bank.

Those who have been given tickets by Congress from Thakur community include Ajay Singh, Rajendra Singh, Kapidhwaj Singh, Laxman Singh, Priyavat Singh, Jaivardhan Singh, Dr. Govind Singh, Rahul Bhadauria, Satish Sikarwar, Ghanshyam Singh, KP Singh, Gopal Singh Chauhan, Yadvendra. Singh, Vikram Singh Nati Raja and Sukhendra Singh Banna. There are Thakur leaders like Digvijay Singh, Govind Singh and Ajay Singh in Congress, who have their own political influence.

At the same time, Congress has fielded Awadhesh Nayak, Neeraj Sharma, Manoj Shukla, Tarun Bhanot, Neelanshu Chaturvedi, Mukesh Nayak, Pankaj Upadhyay, Praveen Pathak, Neeraj Dixit, Alok Chaturvedi, Nilesh Awasthi, Sanjay Shukla, Ravi Joshi, Maya Trivedi, Hemant from the Brahmin community. Katare, Sanjay Sharma and Shashank Bhargava have been made candidates. Congress is yet to field candidates on 86 seats, in which more tickets can be given from these three castes. In this way Congress has played a big bet.

Bet to help women and youth

Congress has tried its best to reach out to half the population i.e. women. By giving tickets to 19 women in its first list of 144 candidates, Congress is considered to be a strategy to counter BJP's women's reservation move. BJP's entire focus is on women votes, due to which Congress made its move. Similarly, to attract young voters, Congress has fielded 65 candidates out of 144 seats whose age is less than 50 years. This makes it clear that Congress's entire focus is on women and young voters, to whom every possible effort is being made. Is trying.

Whereas Congress has given ticket to only one candidate from Muslim community, Arif Masood, from Bhopal Central seat, while it has fielded 5 candidates from Jain community. In this way, Congress has tried to give a political message by giving tickets to six candidates from the minority community. Besides, Congress has also expressed confidence in those leaders who have left BJP or other parties. Congress has given tickets to leaders who have changed party on about 10 seats, including Kunwar Kapidhwaj Singh-Gudh, Rashmi Singh Patel-Nagoud, Bodh Singh Bhagat-Katangi, Neeraj Sharma-Surkhi, Awadhesh Nayak-Datia, Saheb Singh Gurjar-Gwalior. Rural, Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav-Mungawali, Baijnath Yadav-Kolaras and Anubhav Munjare-Balaghat have been fielded.