‘Murkhon Ke Sardaar, Kans Mama, Dhritrashtra, Pandavs and Kauravs, Chalo Chalo, Mera Kya Kasoor’: The Dramatic MP Poll campaign

The hectic election campaign in Madhya Pradesh has finally concluded ahead of polling on November 17, but not without its share of drama and some sharp exchanges.

‘Murkhon ke sardaar, Kans mama, Dhritrashtra, Pandavs and Kauravs, chalo chalo, vishwasghaat, aur mera kya kasoor’ — from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Priyanka Gandhi – top leaders in both the camps had much to say as they took potshots at their adversaries.

The PM virtually had the last word when he referred to Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday as the ‘murkhon ke sardaar’ (the chief of fools) for the latter’s statement that mobile phones in India were all made in China.

Some say the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dominated the election campaign in the last week with its top leaders like Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda and UP CM Yogi Adityanath holding multiple rallies and road shows.

The Gandhi siblings were also in the field and mainly it was Priyanka Gandhi who grabbed the headlines. At one rally, she took a dig at Chouhan, saying relationships are proven by maintaining them or Kans was also a mama (rishten nibhane se mama bante hain, varna toh Kans bhi mama the) to highlight the story from Mahabharat where Lord Krishna killed his uncle Kans.

There were more references to the epic Mahabharat as Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, while campaigning in Madhya Pradesh, said the party was fighting the paanch pandavs (five Pandavs) in ‘Modi, Chouhan, ED, CBI and IT’. This saw a sharp retort from Chouhan who said that Congress has accepted that they were the Kauravs and hence the fight was between the right and the wrong. “Priyanka has called me a Kans mama. I want to tell Priyanka that she won’t understand the relationship between a brother and a sister," Chouhan said in a rally.

The bitterness between Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath since the 2020 parting also reflected in the campaign with Scindia often gesturing at his rallies how Kamal Nath always used to tell him and other Congress MLAs to ‘chalo chalo’ saying he had no time for them.

“Ultimately, the public told Kamal Nath to ‘chalo chalo’ and he had to go as CM," Scindia said, justifying his decision to upstage the Kamal Nath government and join hands with the BJP. Nath reacted to this in a rather poetic way as he said at a rally that ‘kya tha mera kasoor ki meri sarkar girayi’ (What was my fault that my government was brought down).

Priyanka Gandhi, on the last day of the campaign, took a potshot at Scindia for the first time, blaming him for ‘vishwasghaat’ (back-stabbing) and said he had followed his family’s tradition.

Will such barbs and potshots have an impact on voters come November 17? We will know on result day on December 3 in the state referred to popularly as ‘MP Gazab Hai, Sabse Alag Hai’ (MP is Amazing and different).