Bhopal: Days after the BSP and SP broke away from the proposed grand alliance in Madhya Pradesh, another potential alliance partner, the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), snubbed the Congress on Monday.
The GGP, which has a strong presence in the state’s tribal pockets, announced the first list of 26 candidates for the upcoming assembly polls.
Declaring that it would contest all the 230 assembly seats in MP, the party released a list of 26 candidates from 14 tribal-dominated districts. The decision was taken at the GGP Madhya Pradesh committee meeting in Bhopal on Monday.
Blaming the Congress, the party said it had not fulfilled its promise about seat sharing. “We had demanded 11 seats, which the Congress had promised but they never walked the talk,” party vice president Darbu Singh Uike said.
The party is said to hold a considerable sway on tribal voters in regions, including Vindhya and Mahakaushal. Tribals constitute around 21% of the total population in Madhya Pradesh.
Tribals are the traditional vote bank of the Congress but the ruling BJP has been making attempts to woo the ethnic population.
In September, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav had held a joint tour of Shahdol and Balaghat districts with GGP head Heera Singh Markam. Yadav had also expressed interest in forging an alliance with BSP and GGP during his trip to MP.
In the 2013 assembly polls, when the BJP swept to power with 165 seats and 44% votes, GGP had managed to record just a 1% vote share. Despite it not being viewed as a potent force in MP politics, the GGP could still stage a setback in the closely fought assembly polls.
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