Why BJP is taking on Congress' corruption allegations head-on in MP

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party has learnt from the mistakes committed in its unsuccessful Karnataka Assembly polls campaign and not allow the charges of corruption to stick to itself in Madhya Pradesh.

As part of this strategy, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government has gone on an all-out assault against the Congress leadership, which had levelled allegations of corruption against the saffron leadership.

The Congress leadership has been alleging that the state has turned into a bedrock of corruption and a 50 per cent commission government is working in the state.

These allegations and the strategy of the Congress are very similar to what was adopted by the grand old party successfully in Karnataka. This has forced the BJP, which is desperate to retain power in Madhya Pradesh, to aggressively tackle these allegations.

Within days of Congress leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, MP Congress chief Kamal Nath and former union minister Arun Yadav, accusing the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh of corruption, an FIR was registered against them.

Chief Minister Chouhan had ordered the intelligence department to probe the corruption claims, within hours of such allegations being levelled by the opposition.

The BJP is now working on a plan that aims to bring out before voters the narrative that Congress is on a pre-planned agenda to defame the saffron leadership and state government.

“The immediate legal action against such corruption allegations was necessary so that it doesn’t become a norm in the lead-up to the Assembly polls later this year,” sources said.

In Karnataka, the BJP was late to realise that its local leadership was unable to distance itself from these corruption allegations, leading to the defeat of the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai-led government.

The party certainly doesn’t want such a situation to arise in Madhya Pradesh at any cost as it holds strategic importance for the re-election campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024. Hence, it feels the need to aggressively go after any Congress leader making such charges.

BJP is plagued by massive anti-incumbency as it has been in power for almost two decades, barring a brief period of about 15 months when the Kamal Nath-led Congress government was in power.

In 2018, the BJP was only able to secure 109 out of 230 seats in the MP Assembly, paving the way for the formation of Kamal Nath-led government after Congress was able to win 114 seats. Though the BJP was later able to engineer a split in the Congress with the help of Jyotiraditya Scindia and come back to power.

The BJP feels that if it is able to form a government in Madhya Pradesh, its chances of retaining its tally of Lok Sabha seats from the central Indian state would be much better.

With 29 Lok Sabha seats, Madhya Pradesh is a crucial state for both the BJP and Congress. The BJP had secured 27 seats in the 2014 general election while it had bettered its performance and secured 28 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The saffron front hopes to maintain its lead over Congress in the state as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to seek his third consecutive term in the 2024 general elections.

Though Kamal Nath has been given a free hand in taking on the BJP in the forthcoming state elections, the polls in Madhya Pradesh are expected to be a close contest as the saffron unit, led by Chouhan, is aggressively tackling all allegations with counter-allegations and freebies with welfare schemes of its own.