Is Shivraj Chouhan set for a record third term in Madhya Pradesh?

Is Shivraj Chouhan set for a record third term in Madhya Pradesh?

 

Gwalior/Indore: Youngsters in Madhya Pradesh want the 25 November assembly elections in the state to be a battle between chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and young Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia.

With the Congress party stopping short of formally nominating Scindia, 42, currently the Union power minister, as the party’s chief ministerial candidate, it may have handed the edge to Chouhan, 54, who enjoys popular appeal in the state.  

Sensing as much, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is going all out to project Chouhan as it bids for a record third successive term in the central Indian state. All the party’s posters, hoardings and loudspeaker announcements carry his name and highlight his government’s development record. 

Even Narendra Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat chief minister, has been dwarfed by Chouhan in the campaign effort

“I am the issue this time in the election. I am the target of the Congress party. They have levelled personal charges against me. Don’t you want your mamaji (or uncle, as he popularly known as) to become the chief minister once again?,” Chouhan queries at every election rally and then seeks an even better mandate than the last time.  

“We have to elect enough number of MLAs to make me the chief minister. (I am aware that) some seats are tough,” he said at a public rally in Indore on 16 November.

A key constituent in the election would be the youth vote—almost one in two voters are in the age category of 18-35 years. According to the chief electoral officer of Madhya Pradesh Jaideep Govind, there are five million first-time voters in the total electorate of 45 million.

Chouhan’s popularity has made him an obvious target for the Congress. Before the campaign started heating up, the Congress released a ‘charge sheet’ against the Chouhan government, listing 17 scams that allegedly took place in his second term and involved more than Rs.1.46 trillion.

The BJP’s national vice-president Prabhat Jha reacted by challenging the Congress to go to court with the allegations.

The schemes include the Ladli Laxmi Yojana (monetary assistance to the girl child), Mukhyamantri Cycle Vitaran Yojana (distribution of bicycles to school children), Mukhyamantri Annapurna Yojana (foodgrain at subsidised rates) and Atal Jyoti Abhiyan (24 hours’ power for rural households and 8-hour supply available for farmers).

“Shivraj is above the party. He is helping the poor, gives them assistance to marry off girls, tries to provide drinking water and electricity and good roads to travel. He is very popular among all sections of the society,” said Omprakash Meena, a resident of Raisen district.  

Jairam Katare, a 24-year-old uneducated tribal of Ganganagar village in Dhar district, about 120km from Indore, says he doesn’t have to worry about his one-year-old daughter because mama has promised Rs.1 lakh to his daughter once she turns 18 through the Ladli Laxmi programme. 

Party leaders vouch for Chouhan’s popularity and claim BJP will win by a landslide.

The opinion poll conducted by AC Nielsen for ABP News projects that BJP will win 155 of the 230 seats in the Madhya Pradesh assembly, leaving the Congress only with 65 seats.  

Finally when people get down to thinking and voting, it will be a one-way election. I do think when people start thinking about elections, it will be whether the yojanas (government plans) of the chief minister have come onto the ground,” senior BJP leader Yashodhara Raje, who is contesting from Shivpuri, said. 

Another advantage for Chouhan is that he is popular among all sections of the society. Minorities in Madhya Pradesh are not hostile to BJP, often accused by critics of engaging in divisive politics, even though they may not vote for it.  

“We have seen both the Congress and BJP governments. We get electricity now, water situation has also improved but we always vote for Indira Gandhi’s party,” said 69-year-old Rehmat Bai, who lives with her son and daughter-in-law in Dewas district. 

Rahul kumar Gupta

PGDM,1st Year.(Source Mint)