Jabalpur: It’s polling day and no one has gotten any sleep at the house of senior advocate Vivek Tankha – Congress’s candidate from Jabalpur. In his office – which is at their residence – Vivek’s son Varun runs his father’s campaign. His friends, colleagues and associates crowd around him in the lawyer’s office which is filled with well-bound books and a large desk. In the foyer and verandah, some more people can be seen. An election is like a festival with a dress code – white kurta-pyjamas with the party gamcha.
The previous night, Vivek – or Tankha saab as the Congress candidate is known in Jabalpur – addressed the substantial Bohra community in the heart of the city. Bohras are a disciplined lot of businessmen who do not indulge in empty, heated sloganeering. The gentle round of applause by a crowd of around 500 Bohras – all dressed in their routine white salwar and gold-knitted skull caps – after each assertion is symptomatic of how self-disciplined the community is. “We would have voted for Tankha saab even if he was contesting on a BJP ticket,” says a young Yakub who admires the soft-spoken man addressing them.
Tankha has lived in Jabalpur most of his life and now shuffles between his hometown and Delhi, where he is a Supreme Court lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP. The obvious goodwill that he enjoys in Jabalpur, where his father was a high court judge and he himself was an advocate general, however, did not convert into a victory in 2014 when a massive Modi wave swept Madhya Pradesh. But this time, he seems to have learnt his lesson and seems prepared.
Vivek Tankha (left) with Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath. Credit: PTI
Congress leaders and party workers are also more enthusiastic this time around as they know of Tankha’s close relationship with incumbent chief minister Kamal Nath, who has already declared that “Madhya Pradesh ki sarkar Bhopal se nahi Jabalpur se chalegi”.
BJP’s (missing) campaign
The BJP state president, Rakesh Singh lives in a British-style government mansion with manicured lawns and guards at the gate. At 12:30 pm on Sunday, the day before polling, he had not yet come out of his bedroom. “Saheb campaigned till 3 in the morning and he will come out after his puja,” an office boy informs this reporter.
There is almost nobody in the house – no workers, no campaigners, no visitors. Just a few journalists and office staff. Singh’s team knows he does not come out before 1 pm, so they time their arrival accordingly. Predictably, he comes out after 1 pm and heads straight for a thana where he goes on to lodge a protest dharna on some issue.
It’s the final stage of the campaign and Singh is doing a sit-in protest.
There are no posters in town with his face or proclaiming he is the BJP’s candidate from the constituency. There is an eerie silence at his residence and the fancy BJP office.
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Singh, who sold bamboo and wicker baskets in a poor town of the city and rose to become a three-time MP and BJP president, knows well what he is doing. All his posters only read: ‘Phir Ek Baar, Modi Sarkar’. No one knows him, no one needs to know him. The faithful and the gullible need only to know that they are electing Modi – that’s all.
The BJP state president, Rakesh Singh. Credit: Facebook
Singh first won in 2004 in the aftermath of India Shining, Digvijay’s abysmal record as chief minister and Atal’s goodwill. In 2009 again, Madhya Pradesh went with BJP on Shivraj’s goodwill and 2014 was all about Modi. In 15 years, Jabalpur hasn’t changed and Singh hasn’t done anything about it. He did only one significant thing – changed his name from Ghanshyam Ghansu Patel to the more respectable Rakesh Singh.
He knows the only important thing is to get a BJP ticket and with luck, the right wave will come at the right time. Modi will see him through, and if he does fail, it will not be because of his own doing – or lack thereof – as he has hardly put up a fight.
Jabalpur – or Jubbalpore as the British called it – was once the most important town in central India ahead of Nagpur, Bhopal, Raipur or even Indore. By 1930, it had gained enough traction to be considered the federal capital of India. Indeed, by 1935, it held the federal assembly and a series of important meetings of the Congress.
Post-independence, it declined for no visible reason other than poor leadership. It has a caste and community combination like no other place in India. Of the 21 lakh voters, 2.5 lakh are Christians, three lakh Muslims, three lakh Brahmins and some ten lakh are SC/ST and OBC, comprising various sub-castes. There is also a thriving transgender community and two of them have even won corporation elections.
In 2104, Singh had garnered 5.6 lakh votes and defeated Tankha by about two lakh votes. That may change this time. There is somewhat support for Modi but people also question the 15 years of Singh.
Everyone agrees that there can be no one better suited than Tankha – who has a vision and plan for the town. He is playing to that belief while Singh is depending on Modi. But anger against Singh might, in the end, prove to be more crucial than support for Modi.