State scan: BJP tries to woo back the tribal vote in Madhya Pradesh

The Madhya Pradesh (MP) government recently celebrated the first Tribal Pride Day (Janjatiya Gourav Diwas) to honour and commemorate Chota Nagpur tribal leader Birsa Munda, who in the late 19th century fought the British, and contractors and landlords who he thought were exploitative.

The underlying idea was to reach out to the state’s 15 million tribal population, who account for 21 per cent of the 72 million people in MP. This vote bank has drifted away from the ruling party, the BJP, over some time, the last Assembly polls in 2018 being the evidence of that.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his