Lesson for parties: No "outsider" for electorate

Kamalnath remains the only leader who is keeping his own counsel on the subject. "I will wait for the situation to develop further," he says. Nevertheless, the introspection which had been missing after the ’96 loss under pretexts like Congress(T) and Vikas Congress, is omnipresent this time as Digvijay told The Indian Express: "We willbe better prepared for the Assembly elections and the increase in the vote share gives me confidence." The severest setback from the results has been for Arjun Singh and V C Shukla, the latter is not even a member of the CWC to remain important any longer. Arjun who had literally distributed the tickets for the party in the state, is now reduced to seeking a Rajya Sabha nomination for himself or son Rahul. For Shukla it is definitely curtains as he not only lost himself, but made sure that fellow partyman Pawan Diwan loses in neighbouring Mahasamund to protect family borough.

That has left a vacancy in Brahmin leadership in the state which will most likely be filled by mining minister Satyanarain Sharma.

For the victorious BJP, the immediate impact of the result is the replacement of the old guard with younger blood. It was ironic that in its most glorious moment, the two men who had literally groomed the party from its infancy in the ’50s, themselves lost.

Former Chief Ministers Sunderlal Patwa andKailash Joshi will now most likely be sent to Rajya Sabha to make vacancy for younger leaders like Vikram Verma, Shivraj Singh and Kailash Vijayvargiya in the state.

BJP worries, however, centre around an important segment of the state’s population — the tribals. Not only did their state president Nand Kumar Sai loose from Raigarh, their pre-election import Dilip Singh Bhuria got a crushing in Jhabua.

The two Bastar wins came more as a surprise as BJP top brass here is busying itself in devising ways of making the lotus symbol more popular in tribal areas which still vote on symbols rather than personalities.

The BSP was the most disappointed lot as it not only lost the two seats it held in ’96, but could barely hold on to its vote share of 8.7 per cent mostly attributed to the fact that it contested more seats this time and the overall number of candidates was far less. Its national general secretary Arvind Netam lost his deposit in Kanker and lost in Janjgir as well.

The one lesson which each partyhas learnt is the fact that the electorate does not want an "outsider" to represent them anymore. Every leader who contested outside home district lost, be it Arjun, Netam Patwa or Joshi. The fact that the elected representative should be living in the constituency has become very important and perhaps more important is that he should have easy accessibility.

Arjun was seen as someone surrounded by all the trappings of power and thus having no time for his constituents or free accessibility. The assembly elections will thus see an overwhelming number of home candidates, and the newer the better.