ABSTRACT
Following the analysis of the Dalit Agenda adopted by the Digvijay Singh government and the implementation of two significant policies of land distribution and supplier diversity, we move now to understand its impact on electoral politics, more particularly the state assembly elections of December 2003. This is necessary because, with the dalit vote assuming political importance due to the ongoing process of identity assertion and contestation in the Hindi heartland, the Dalit Agenda came to occupy centrality in state politics in MP, particularly electoral politics. While the impact of the policy of supplier diversity was felt on only a very small section of mainly the urban electorate, the land distribution programme affected the livelihood expectations of the vast number of landless dalits and tribals as well as the fortunes of the powerful landowning ‘encroacher class’ in the countryside. Understanding the impact of the land distribution policy therefore assumes significance, particularly in view of the defeat of the Congress party in the election. In one of the highest turnouts in the state’s history, the BJP won 173 seats while the Congress that had gained a stable majority in 1998 was reduced to just 38 seats. The vote share of the BJP rose from 38.98 per cent to 42.50 per cent while that of the Congress fell sharply from 40.57 per cent to 31.63 per cent. The Congress lost votes to a number of smaller parties, which between them won the remaining votes (Table 1 in the appendix to this chapter).
