Bhopal, Nov 26: Madhya Pradesh, dubbed as one of the Bimaru states, is for the first time in recent years witnessing a different phenomenon with development emerging as the key issue in the assembly elections overriding other factors, thanks to the power crisis and bad roads. Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, who once remarked that elections are not won on the basis of developmental works, is being put in a tight spot by an aggressive BJP which is exploiting hardships of the people much to the discomfiture of Congress.
Perhaps, never in the past the emphasis on development was so overwhelming than this time.
BJP has been aggressively propagating that the ten-year Congress rule has put Madhya Pradesh among the Bimaru (sick) states in the company of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The 1985 assembly polls in the state were held in the backdrop of assassination of Indira Gandhi and in 1990 passions were high over the Ayodhya issue. The '93 polls were held a year after the demolition of Babri mosque.
The high price of onions overshadowed all other issues in 1998 bringing tears to the eyes of BJP as Congress, whose reins were taken over by Sonia Gandhi then, had emerged victorious.
Singh, who has talked of launching a dalit agenda as also a minority agenda and had worked towards decentralisation of power through panchayati raj, has found himself on a sticky wicket on the issue of development.
Bureau Report