Setting its sights firmly on the 21% tribal vote in Madhya Pradesh, Congress has named prominent tribal leader and former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria as the head of its state election campaign committee. The appointment comes less than four months before Assembly elections in the state.
The 73-year-old belongs to the Bhil tribe, the largest tribe in Madhya Pradesh, and was a minister in the Manmohan Singh government at the centre from 2004-2011.
The scheduled tribe population In Madhya Pradesh largely consists of the Bhil, Gond, Bhilala, Kol, Korku, Baiga, Saharia, and Bharia tribes. They account for 21% of total electors and are the second largest such group, trailing only the OBC voters, who make up over 50% of electors.
Of the state's 230 Assembly seats, 47 are reserved for scheduled tribes. In the 2008 assembly elections, the ruling BJP had won 29 of these seats, while the Congress had got 18. In 2013, the BJP had won 31 and the Congress tally was reduced to 15. This flipped in the 2018 elections, with the Congress winning 31 seats and the BJP getting 15.
The 34-member election campaign committee headed by Mr Bhuria will also have former chief minister Kamal Nath, his son and Lok Sabha MP Nakul Nath, former chief minister Digvijaya Singh and his brother Laxman Singh, Leader of Opposition Dr Govind Singh, former state Congress chiefs Arun Yadav and Suresh Pachauri, and Rajya Sabha MPs Vivek Tankha and Rajmani Patel as its members
Mr Bhuria's appointment comes on the heels of the Congress appointing Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala as a senior observer and former Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Handore as an observer for the Madhya Pradesh elections.
The Congress had won the elections in the state in 2018 but had to give way to the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government two years later, after a rebellion by Jyotriaditya Scindia. Mr Scindia was also, incidentally, the Congress state election campaign committee chief for the 2018 elections.
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