In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has started saving the mass base among the tribals. In the last elections, the Congress returned to power by snatching 15 seats from the BJP.
The BJP organisation knows very well that the support of tribals is necessary to retain power. For this, Tribal Pride Day was celebrated here for the first time in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had participated in the programme organised on the sacrifice day of tribal hero Shankar Shah-Raghunath Shah in Jabalpur. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan started schemes to provide employment to tribal youth. In view of this, the state Congress has also started trying to save its tribal base. On October 11, a meeting of all the tribal MLAs of the party and the presidents of the district units have been called. In this the future plan of action will be discussed.
The number of scheduled tribes in the total population of the state is 21.1 percent. 47 seats are reserved for tribal category. Congress had won 30 of these seats in the 2018 assembly elections. BJP's tally had come down to 16. Whereas, in the 2013 elections, the BJP had 31 seats. Due to this change, the BJP was lagging behind in forming the government.
This is the reason that the authority and the organisation have conducted many activities to increase the penetration among the tribal class.
If the Chief Minister Ration Aapke Gram Yojana was implemented to connect the youth with employment, it worked as a Tribal Pride Day initiative. Loans of non-licensed moneylenders were nullified. Self-employment schemes were implemented. Along with this, information about each polling station in 89 tribal development blocks were prepared through booth empowerment campaign.
The party has also benefited from this in urban body and three-tier panchayat elections.
Seeing this preparation of BJP, Congress has also started an exercise to save its tribal base. State Congress President Kamal Nath is in touch with the office bearers of organizations working in tribal areas, Jai Yuva Adivasi Shakti Sangathan (JAYS) and Gondwana Gantantra Party. Actually, JAYS have influence in Malwa-Nimar and Gondwana Gantantra Party in some parts of Mahakoshal region.
They may not win elections themselves but they can influence votes. JAYS has already announced to contest on fifty assembly seats.