Madhya Pradesh Elections: Congress Pits RSS Old Guard Avdhesh Nayak To Corner Rival Narottam Mishra In Datia

Congress has pitted RSS old guard Avdhesh Nayak against state home minister Narottam Mishra from Datia Assembly constituency.

Congress has pitted RSS old guard Avdhesh Nayak against state home minister Narottam Mishra from Datia Assembly constituency. ( Image Source :PTI )

Madhya Pradesh Elections 2023: After the Congress fielded Vikram Mastal, who plays onscreen Hanuman, against the BJP’s longest-serving Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, it has pitted RSS old guard Avdhesh Nayak against state home minister Narottam Mishra from Datia Assembly constituency. The grand old party has attempted to corner Mishra through Avdhesh Nayak, who has an RSS background. Narottam Mishra has managed to establish himself as a firebrand Hindutva leader in Madhya Pradesh.

Nayak joined the Congress in August this year. He joined the Congress in the presence of Kamal Nath and Digivijaya Singh. He contested the 2003 Assembly election from Datia on BJP’s ticket but lost to Congress' Ghanshyam Singh by 2,904 votes. The former RSS leader was then accused of fanning communal tension to consolidate majority votes. 

Rift Between Nayak And Narottam Mishra

The rift between the two BJP leaders, Nayak and Mishra, started in 2008 when Mishra moved to Datia after Gwalior’s Dabra seat was reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC), as reported by the news agency IANS. The rift continued to get larger as Mishra’s supporters looked at Nayak with suspicious eyes and accused him of hatching a conspiracy to weaken the leader of his own party.

The internal rift between these two leaders was visible in the public domain after Mishra managed to win a breathtaking contest in 2018 against Congress’ Rajendra Bhart with a margin of 2,600 votes. Later during a pomp and show after the 2018 election, Avdhesh Nayak approached Mishra in the crowd and garlanded him. Mishra, on the contrary, humiliated Nayak, pulled the garland apart and moved away, IANS reported.

Narottam Mishra vs Avdhesh Nayak

Four and half years later, the two have become arch-rivals now. Both leaders belong to the Brahmin community and have established themselves on the same hard-Hindutva path. Mishra has been facing the resentment of the people because of his controversial statements, growing crime against women across the state, and huge corruption, news agency IANS reported citing sources. 

The IANS sources also said that Mishra was among those BJP leaders who were found performing very poorly in the party’s survey before the ticket distribution. However, he is trying to convince people by highlighting developments of Datia in the past few years, especially medical college and airport. 

In a bid to defeat Mishra in Datia, the Congress envisaged an aggressive campaign highlighting the rampant corruption, abuse of power and 18-years of misrule of the BJP government against Congress' promises of farm loans and power bill waiver, LPG at Rs 500, Rs 1500 under Nari Samman and others.

The agrarian Datia is surrounded by lush greenery, temples and ponds. It was a part of the Bundelkhand region before Independence. In 1956, when Madhya Pradesh came into existence, Datia was merged with the Gwalior-Chambal region.

According to the election commission's 2018 data, upper caste-dominated Datia Assembly seat has a total of 1,90,905 votes, with 1,02,632 male and 88,261 female voters, as reported by IANS. Brahmans and Thakur account for 22 per cent of the total voters, while OBCs voters are estimated to be 50 per cent. Minority, SC and ST voters accounted for the remaining 28 per cent.

In the 2018 Madhya Pradesh elections, Datia recorded a voter turnout of 76.77 per cent. In 2013, the turnout was 75.31 per cent, and in 2008, it was 75.39 per cent. Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly go to polls on November 17 in a single phase and the result will be announced on December 3.