Lok Sabha Results 2019: Whom are Adivasis Tilting Towards in the State with Largest Tribal Population: Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh has the biggest tribal population in the country. Naturally, support from tribal communities becomes affects the results of not just the six seats reserved for tribals. A decisive political tilt by the tribals can alter poll outcomes on more than a dozen seats. Which perhaps explains why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi made repeated attempts to woo the tribal vote in their Lok Sabha campaigns.Follow all the LIVE updates of Lok Sabha Election Results 2019 here

Malwa-Nimar region, considered to be the epicenter of the tribal population, went for polls in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, on May 19. BJP had won all eight seats in the region in 2014.

The constituencies include five seats reserved for candidates in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes categories — Ujjain, Ratlam, Dewas, Dhar and Khargone. In all, Madhya Pradesh, which has 29 Lok Sabha seats, has 10 reserved seats.

Congress, which recently defeated BJP in the state elections, won 35 assembly seats from this region as against BJP’s 28. In the previous assembly polls, the BJP had won 56 out of this region’s 66 seats, indicating the extent of Congress’s gain.

The Congress expects to make an impact in the tribal regions where Priyanka Gandhi’s grandmother Indira Gandhi held sway over tribal communities. The BJP expects the tribals will go with it, through the influence exerted by RSS affiliates like Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams.

A tribal outfit called the Jai Adivasi Yuva Shakti (JAYS), whose president Hiralal Alawa, a doctor who was working with the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi and quit to contest election successfully on a Congress ticket, is also active in the area. The Congress hopes to capitilise on the same.

The Congress is also banking on the welfare measures the party claims to have delivered for the tribals over the years apart from its loan waiver scheme for the farmers. It has also made the electoral pledge of ensuring a minimum guaranteed annual income of Rs 72,000 for the country’s poorest 20% a key election issue.