Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at his residence during the counting of votes for MP Assembly elections, in Bhopal, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: On October 6, weeks ahead before the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan faced the prospect of being voted out as the chief minister. However, he chose to take on the naysayers within BJP in his own inimitable style.
At a rally in Dindori, an emotional Chouhan asked voters, “Am I running a good government or a bad one? Should this government continue or not? Should 'Mama' become the CM or not?”
Needless to say, the reply was a resounding yes, never mind the fact that the seat eventually voted for Congress’ Omkar Singh Markam over BJP candidate Pankaj Singh Tekam.
BJP’s success in Madhya Pradesh, where it has managed to win for a fifth term, is partly due to Chouhan’s doggedness and partly due to the party’s pursuit of every election with unmatched intensity.
Welfare schemes, Modi’s popularity, and the gamble to field some of its veterans in the state elections seemed to have paid off, with the saffron party reversing what was believed to be a wave of anti-incumbency against the Shivraj government.
As fatigue set in among voters, BJP central command swooped in weeks ahead of the polls. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the party’s chief poll strategist, went in with three in-charges – Union Ministers Bhupender Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw and general secretary P Murlidhar Rao. The party fielded several senior faces – Kailash Vijayvargiya, Prahlad Patel, Narendra Singh Tomar, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Rakesh Singh. Except for Kulaste, most of the Parliamentarians and veterans won the elections.
A senior BJP lawmaker, who was involved with the election process, said that the party has been strengthening its booth structure for months.
Earlier this year, it launched the 'Ladli Behna Yojana', which the lawmaker said turned out to be the clincher.
“The timely launch of the scheme and increasing it to Rs 1250 in the last two months seemed to have worked,” the lawmaker said.
In all, party insiders say that BJP carried out over 500 rallies in the state. Among them, Chouhan alone took part in over 175 rallies.
The party also moved in Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who engineered a split in the Congress in 2018 to bring Chouhan at the helm. Meanwhile, speculations are rife that he might be considered for the CM’s post now or after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
On the other hand, Congress’ campaign was marred by a lack of rallies of the party’s main campaigners – Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh. Instances of infighting and several complaints of bad ticket distribution are now out in the open.