“The tribal community played a key role in Congress’s defeat in Gujarat, and they have reflected their mandate against the Congress once again in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh,” PM Narendra Modi said in his address at BJP’s Delhi headquarters on Sunday.
Election Commission data on Sunday evening showed that BJP had won 17 of the 29 ST seats in Chhattisgarh to Congress’s 11. In MP, BJP got 24 of 47 ST seats to Congress’s 22. In Rajasthan, it won 12 of 25 ST seats to Congress’s 10. However, in Telangana, nine of the 12 ST seats went to Congress and three to BRS.
PM Narendra Modi Arrives at BJP Headquarters in Delhi as Party Wins Rajasthan Assembly Election 2023, Leads in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
BJP has focused on the tribal community in every election since 2014. It has projected the appointment of Droupadi Murmu as President as the ultimate symbol of empowerment. Modi’s visit to tribal warrior icon Birsa Munda’s village in Jharkhand, in the middle of elections, was part of the same signaling to tribals. Beyond symbolism, the Centre has focused on development works, such as building Eklavya model residential schools and model villages. To BJP’s credit, when it faced challenges on the cultural front among tribals, like protests against the Uniform Civil Code, it quickly doused their anger. Instead, it made the issue of religious conversions and incidents of atrocities a key plank in Chhattisgarh.
Congress was banking heavily on the ST community to tilt the scales in its favour in the three states, evident in how it played on the self-re spect messaging when the urination incident involving a tribal sent shockwaves across MP. It also made welfare promises to the tribals.
The importance of a tribal push was evident in the December 2018 elections when Congress swept the three states with good margins. It won 25 of the 29 ST seats in Chhattisgarh, 31 of the 47 ST seats in Madhya Pradesh, and 12 of the 25 ST seats in Rajasthan.