The Mizoram and the Madhya Pradesh elections will take place on 28 November. Now we’ll be diving deep into both the polls, so stick around till the end.
What are the big issues in the two states, who are the big players and key candidates, and who will the people vote for?
On today’s edition of the Big Story, we’ll be taking a look at the 2018 Madhya Pradesh elections and the 2018 Mizoram elections.
Madhya Pradesh Elections: What You Need to Know
First we’ll look at MP, which has a 230-seat constituency.
The BJP in Madhya Pradesh has been led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan since 2005. The BJP has stayed in power in MP for three terms now. So the Congress clearly has their work cut out for them, since they’re facing an opponent who has been in power in MP since 2003. But Chouhan, being in power for so long, also has a number of drawbacks.
The Quint’s Kritika Goel did a little explainer on the politics of Madhya Pradesh and the big issues the parties will have to address in the Madhya Pradesh elections.
Read the explainer here.
Farmers in MP told The Quint that the government’s schemes don’t help them. They used to sell soyabean for around 5,000 rupees a quintal. Now they make barely half of that. They say garlic used to sell for anywhere from 4.000 to 10,000 rupees a quintal. Now they’re lucky if they can sell it at 1,800 rupees a quintal.
After the 2018 Madhya Pradesh elections, they want to see a government and a chief minister that gives them an appropriate price for their produce so they can feed their families, and earn a livelihood.
Madhya Pradesh Elections: CM Candidates
Who are their options for chief minister? Well, for the BJP it’s a no-brainer, since Mamaji Shivraj Chouhan will continue if they win.
Kamal Nath, who’s leading the party’s campaign in MP, is probably the frontrunner for Congress’ CM candidate. But other possible options include Jyotiraditya Scindia, and even Digvijaya Singh. But without an official confirmation from the grand old party, it looks like it’s anyone’s guess.
Ahead of polling for Madhya Pradesh, Chief Electoral Officer VL Kantarao said that 17,000 polling stations in MP have been identified as critical.
Out of these, 12,000 stations will have CRPF deployed for security. The remaining stations will be covered by CCTV cameras. There will be at least 2,000 polling stations with 100 percent women staff. Additionally 170 polling stations will be handicap-enabled.
2018 Mizoram Elections: What You Need to Know
Now let’s head over to Mizoram, where the people from the state’s 40 constituencies will come together to decide who forms the next government.
The three main contenders for the seats in the 2018 Mizoram elections – the Congress under Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla that is currently in rule; a regional party named the Mizo National Front (MNF), who have been giving the Congress a run for its money since Mizoram became a state in 1987, and the BJP, which doesn’t have much of a hold in the state.
These elections are extremely vital in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, because Mizoram is the only state out of the eight Northeastern states where the BJP is not in control – individually or in an alliance.
2018 Mizoram Elections: Will BJP Finally Open its Account?
While the Congress has been in power in Mizoram for a decade, it was the MNF which formed the first independent state government after winning 24 of 40 seats in the 1987 elections.
The Congress and the MNF have made it a point to present the BJP as an “anti-Christian” party, as a result of which it has never quite managed to gain a stronghold in the predominantly Christian state, PTI reported.
The BJP, however, is looking at new ways by which it can enter as an equal contender in the fight. It has been pushing for the repatriation of the exiled Bru refugees, who fled the state for Tripura, back in 1997, following an outbreak of ethnic clashes against them.
Will the BJP finally open their account in Mizoram after the 2018 elections?
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