Ahead of the next and final round of voting in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, voters are receiving hate pamphlets that exhort “Free India of three crore Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh” and “Free Kashmir of traitors.”
The booklets are being distributed in a door-to-door campaign in the western part of the State by workers of the right wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
Neither the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the State, headed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan nor the RSS has not yet commented on the controversial material. The pamphlets do not carry a party name or symbol, but feature photographs of Narendra Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, and Rajnath Singh, the party president.
They urge people to vote, appealing “if not this time, then never” while underscoring “The country needs a majority government, the country needs a stable and strong government.”Opinion polls show the BJP is poised to win the maximum seats in the national election, though forecasts have differed on whether the party will land a majority, allowing it to form the government without needing to win over more allies than the 25 it currently has.
The ten seats that go to polls in the third and last phase of poling in the state include Vidisha, Dewas (SC), Ujjain (SC), Mandsaur, Ratlam (ST), Dhar (ST), Indore, Khargone (ST), Khandwa and Betul (ST). Of these eight seats are in the Malwa belt considered is very sensitive as it is the stronghold of both the right wing organizations and the banned organization SIMI.
The incident has kicked up a furor in the state and the opposition Congress has blamed the BJP of communalising the polls. The Congress party leaders said that sensing certain defeat in the lok Sabha polls the BJP is trying to vitiate the atmosphere of the state.