Months ahead of Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, discontent brews against Chouhan

New Delhi: With just a few months to go for the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly polls, discontent is seemingly brewing against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Concerns have been expressed by various factions in the Bharatiya Janata Party over the growing clout of Jyotiraditya Scindia loyalists in the state unit at the cost of party old-timers.

Chouhan is understood to have flown to the national capital over the weekend to apprise the top leadership of the BJP regarding the ongoing issues in the state unit. Though sources close to the Chief Minister denied any rebellion in the saffron front, it is learnt that the Central leadership of the party is closely monitoring the situation in the crucial state.

Chouhan’s visit to New Delhi came days after former Chief Minister late Kailash Joshi’s son Deepak Joshi, himself a former minister, quit the BJP and joined Congress. This desertion by Joshi is not being taken lightly by the saffron front as it wants to keep its flock together ahead of the crucial state polls later this year.

BJP leadership feels that Congress is tacitly fanning the rebellion in the state unit to hand the BJP an embarrassing 2018-like defeat. And the BJP leadership wants to avoid fissures in its ranks so close to Assembly polls, sources said.

The saffron leadership doesn’t want to receive another setback like it got recently in Karnataka where it lost former chief minister Jagadish Shettar and deputy CM Laxman Savadi, who joined the Congress. This put the saffron front on the back foot and sent a wrong message to the party cadre just weeks ahead of voting for Assembly polls. The BJP would like to avoid such high-profile desertions from its ranks with just months to go for Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, sources said.

And dissent against Chouhan has been growing over the past few months, with several senior state BJP leaders, including Satyanarayan Sattan, Bhawar Singh Shekhawat, Anup Mishra and Mukesh Jain Dhana have been raising concerns over the leadership of the Chief Minister amid growing clout of Jyotiraditya Scindia-loyalists at the cost of party old-timers.

These rebellious voices have come to the fore with the BJP already battling former Chief Minister and senior leader Uma Bharti over her anti-liquor agitation against the Chouhan government. Over the past few months, she has been openly attacking the BJP’s state government over its liquor policy.

The BJP fears if it is unable to reach out and rein in these rebel voices it could end up ruining the saffron unit’s plans for Assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

With 29 Lok Sabha seats, Madhya Pradesh is a crucial state in BJP’s scheme of things as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to seek his third consecutive term in the 2024 general elections.

The BJP had secured 27 seats in the 2014 general election while it had bettered its performance and secured 28 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the saffron front hopes to maintain its lead over Congress in the state.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a third term in 2024, the BJP feels that if it is able to win the forthcoming Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh its chances of retaining its tally of Lok Sabha seats from the state would be much better.

In 2018, the BJP was only able to secure 109 out of 230 seats in the MP Assembly, paving the way for the formation of Kamal Nath-led government after Congress was able to win 114 seats. Though the BJP was later able to engineer a split in the Congress and come back to power.