Political parties race for tribal votes in poll-bound states
Three days later, the Union cabinet approved an amendment to the Central Universities Act, paving the way for the institution.
This wasn't an administrative decision.
The move was politically significant and highly symbolic.
The PM had announced a central university in tribal-dominated Mulugu, a constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and won by rival Congress in the 2018 assembly election. The announcement was made in Mahbubnagar, which is considered a stronghold of the ruling Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi (BRS), as the regional party had won 13 of the 14 constituencies here in 2018.
On October 5, in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur, Modi announced Jal Jeevan Mission projects in Mandla, Dindori and Jabalpur. Mandla and Dindori are tribal districts. where four of the five assembly seats were won by the Congress in 2018.
The common thread running through these big-ticket announcements by Modi is the thrust on tribal welfare.
The announcements came ahead of elections to 710 assembly segments across four tribal-dominated Schedule V area states in the next two months. Among these constituencies, 123 are reserved for STs. ET takes a look at why the tribal vote is important in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana and how the ground has shifted over the past five years.
The Numbers Game
The key to the focus of the political parties on tribal votes lies in one big number — almost 60% of the reserved seats in the four states were cornered by the Congress, putting it at a clear advantage over its rivals.
