Assembly polls | Congress banks on Priyanka to counter Modi-Shah blitzkrieg in MP

Bhopal: As the clock is ticking for state voters' tryst with the ballot on November 17, political pundits are busy doing calculations about who will get to sit on the treasury bench this time. 

The election campaign has moved into high gear. Realising that the BJP turned to top party leaders -- from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Union Minister Amit Shah and other senior leaders to win the confidence of voters, the Congress appears to have recalibrated its strategy.  

The grand old party is betting big on one of its star campaigners Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to rope in voters. Rahul Gandhi will address public meetings and hold roadshows as part of Congress voter outreach in the state to drive home how the rich and powerful are benefiting at the expense of the common man.  

A day after a flurry of public meetings by Narendra Modi in Indore, Khandwa of Malwa-Nimar and Seoni in Mahakoshal region, and Amit Shah's rallies in other areas of the state, Priyanka's aggressive poll pitch in Indore and Dhar districts on Monday was clearly aimed at wooing first-time voters and tribals. The first-time voters are said to be well over 20 lakh -- a huge number that can well play a major role in deciding the fate of candidates. Given the number heft, their support in terms of votes will mean a lot. Obviously, the Congress will not like to lose out on such a sizeable number of voters. 

Looking at the response from people to Priyanka's public meeting on Monday, the last-lap voter connect strategy appears to be working well for the Congress.  

The importance of the message is not lost on those familiar with BJP's presence in Malwa-Nimar, the region which sends 66 legislators out of a total strength of 230 in the assembly. In the 2018 assembly polls, Congress performed well in 15 districts of the region. The Congress won 36 seats from the region. It won't be wrong to say that the region contributed in a big way to Congress's overall victory and its ascendence to power. The Congress had won 114 seats compared to 109 bagged by the BJP. In the 2013 assembly election, the BJP walked away with 57 out of 66 seats from the region, helping the saffron party to establish its supremacy. 

Since 2003, barring a brief period of 15 months beginning towards the end of 2018, the Congress party remained out of power. So in the Indore public meeting on Monday, she sought to tap into the anger of youth, who are frustrated with the Shivraj Singh government for its inability to fill vacant government jobs or generate other sources of employment. 

Similarly, in Dhar, a predominantly tribal area, she did not forget to mention Indira Gandhi's affection for tribals and that Indira Gandhi never made any attempt to change their culture and traditional value system. She chose to highlight unemployment and price rise, the two issues that are impacting the life of the common man, and the BJP-ruled government's 'preference' for chosen business houses by handing over government-run facilities to them at dirt cheap prices.