Bhopal: The delay in announcement of candidates for many key Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh is confounding aspirants and observers as political parties are playing a cat and mouse game.
There is a method behind this delay – the BJP and the Congress want to outwit the each other with their choice of candidates. So, last-minute filing of nomination papers may be resorted to, in order to give no clue to rivals about who the candidate is.
In this election, every seat counts in the absence of a wave favouring any party.
The BJP, which had won 27 out of a total of 29 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections does not want to cede ground to the Congress. Experts say Congress' tally is only set to go up after wresting power in the assembly polls late last year.
In 2014, only Congress got only two setas – Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna and Kamal Nath from Chhindwara. (Scindia is now a general secretary of the Congress and Nath became the chief minister after Congress edged the BJP in the Assembly election late last year.) Congress currently has three Lok Sabha MPs from the state after a bypoll win in 2015.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh – one of the three most influential leaders from the state – is locked in a poll battle from prestigious Bhopal seat and he will hardly have a chance to spare his energies and attention to focus on other seats in the state.
The Congress could not win from the Bhopal seat in the last 10 Lok Sabha elections.
This leaves the party with Scindia and Kamal Nath, the two other most prominent party faces with mass appeal and stature.
The Congress will obviously not like to take any chance and fritter away its prized leader – Scindia – when it comes to using him.
Scindia holds sway in Gwalior-Chambal belt which has four Lok Sabha seats – Gwalior, Guna-Shivpuri, Bhind and Morena. His clout extends beyond that and up to Dhar, Indore, Ujjain and Vidisha regions.
Scindia romped home from Guna seat four times – once in a bypoll in 2002 and from then on in the 2004, 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Historically speaking, the seat has been held 14 times by the Scindia family, including by his grandmother Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia.
Talk is that Scindia may contest from Indore or Vidisha, seats where victory proved elusive for the Congress for three decades.
In Indore, Lok Saba Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has been continuously winning from 1989.
In Vidisha, the home town of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, another BJP stalwart Sushma Swaraj is holding fort from 2009.
As the Congress has tasked Scindia with the affairs of western part of the politically crucial state Uttar Pradesh, his wife Priyadarshini Raje began voter outreach by extensively touring his stronghold Guna constituency in March. She toured the region for nine days, met party workers and addressed women's conventions.
The Scindia family also wields clout in areas of Uttar Pradesh bordering Madhya Pradesh, making Scindia equally useful in the battle of ballots in the most populous state of the country.
In Guna constituency, he is credited with getting tap water facility. A major hospital and a medical college are also his achievements.
In Guna’s neighbouring Gwalior seat, the district Congress committee has sought Priyadarshini Raje's candidature, attesting to the popularity of the former royals.
The BJP's game plan is to tie down all all major Congress leaders in their respective constituencies.
In such a scenario, the Congress will employ every strategy to keep its rival guessing and deprive the BJP of any chance to outwit the party which has wrested power after 15 long years.
As it is, the party will move heaven and earth to improve its tally in a state where Saffron outfits have deep roots.
The party would also consult Scindia on many seats before taking any decision.
The young leader, who is also the chief whip of Congress in the Lok Sabha, gave enough indications that even though he has a major responsibility in UP, Madhya Pradesh would not slip in importance in his scheme of things.
"Wherever I am, Madhya Pradesh is important for me," was what he said in recent past.