New Delhi, Oct 8: Election dates are declared for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Assembly elections but the Congress seems to have missed the chance of having a clear edge over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in these elections. The Congress not only failed to do an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party but also with smaller political party like Gondawana Gantantra Party (GGP). The GGP has its influence in the tribal area and has over two per cent vote bank in these states.
One or two per cent votes have been significant in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh elections because 2 to 2.5 per cent votes share in Madhya Pradesh and one per cent in Chhattisgarh have been actually making the victory margins in the past few elections between the BJP and the Congress. Sources said that it was due to the Madhya Pradesh leadership, the Congress failed to do alliance with the BSP, the SP or the GGP. When talks with the political parties having similar ideologies started, these parties were of the view that the Congress will take smaller political parties along in these two states. Also Read | Fallout with BSP will have no bearing on 'mahagathbandhan' for Lok Sabha polls: Congress Sources said that leaders of these smaller parties were ready to forget their differences with the Congress leadership as at the moment there is nothing to think about anything except stopping the BJP from coming to power again. Interestingly these smaller political parties were flexible in terms of Assembly seats to stop Modi Juggernaut in 2019. The demand of SP and GGP was very limited but leaders of these parties were brought to table for talks and they were taken very lightly. Congress leaders from Chhattisgarh were not even asked as there is no one heavyweight in the Chhattisgarh Congress to have the access to the office of Rahul Gandhi like Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh. Also Read | Will Congress' 'soft Hindutva' strategy pay-off? Sources said the Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh are so helpless that they failed to say anything to Rahul Gandhi even when alliance with the BSP in Chhattisgarh started going off the track. Actually Kamal Nath offered the BSP to borrow some candidates from the Congress to field in Assembly election as he felt the party does not have candidates who can win elections. It means several Congress candidates would have contested elections from the BSP which was refused by the party. Moreover, The Congress also backtracked its initial commitment to bear the burden of election expanses of the BSP. So the Congress has made an easy one-sided victory into a neck and neck contest.