Bulldozers don’t work for BJP in Madhya Pradesh, and state leaders tell top officials
According to sources, bulldozers may have become a part of the electoral vocabulary for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. Still, it has not worked for the party in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
While the state’s demographics and the distribution of community population do not create a backdrop for the BJP leadership to reap electoral benefits from “bulldozer politics”, the state government’s move has become an obstacle for the party to achieve its goal. He said to strengthen the tribal and Dalit votes in the state.
Sources in the party’s state unit said that a section of leaders had expressed this view in a recent meeting with BJP’s national general secretary (organization) B L Santhosh, in which the party sought to gain a support base among SCs and STs—appraised the results of his efforts. , two critical voters who helped the BJP’s 15 years of uninterrupted rule in the state since 2003.
After the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government drew some applause for using bulldozers to maintain law and order, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also allowed bulldozers to demolish homes and properties of alleged stone pelters.
The move had earned Chouhan the image of a “bulldozer mama” on the lines of Yogi Adityanath’s “bulldozer baba”. The BJP assessed that Adityanath’s “adventurous image in maintaining good law and order records” had helped him return to power.
However, in MP, where Hindus constitute over 90 per cent of the population and Muslims are around seven per cent, “bulldozer” politics does not work, party leaders said. “Hindu-Muslim politics has not been an issue in the state, but caste politics works more deeply here,” said a BJP leader.
Following the Khargone communal clashes, the authorities demolished 49 Muslim houses, some of which were constructed under the PM Awas Yojana. The incident led to several SC/ST organizations calling for united opposition to have a similar fate for their communities.
Widespread unhappiness among smaller tribal and Dalit organizations hampered the BJP’s efforts to bring both communities back to its fold.
