New Delhi: With days to go for polling, there are murmurs regarding a massive rift between Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Bharatiya Janata Party’s top leadership.
These speculations were fueled further by a post on social media by Chouhan in which he was featured along with the JCB (Janata Chahti BJP). Interestingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is missing from this latest campaign unveiled by the longest-serving chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, who is seeking another term in office.
Sources stated that Chouhan is particularly peeved at the way the announcement of his name from the Budni constituency was delayed, which had fueled rumours in the political circles over his possible future, and whether he may even be fielded by the saffron front.
However, after days of waiting, the suspense over Chouhan’s electoral fate finally ended this week after his name was announced by the Central BJP in its fourth list for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls.
It is understood that Chouhan, who is trying hard to undo anti-incumbency against the BJP, is not happy with the way that the senior leadership of the party has been trying to show him down just ahead of the crucial state polls.
The state Assembly polls will be held in a single phase on November 17. The results for the 230 seats Assembly will be declared on December 3.
Securing a win in Madhya Pradesh is important for the BJP. The saffron unit feels that if it is able to form a government in Madhya Pradesh its chances of retaining its tally of Lok Sabha seats from the central Indian state would be much better. However, with this new friction between the BJP’s state and central leadership, securing a saffron win would be very difficult.
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. However, the BJP was later able to engineer a split in the Congress with the help of Jyotiraditya Scindia and came back to power.
Indication of a new alliance within the BJP?
Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s new post on social media, featuring a JCB is being interpreted as an indication of a possible new alliance between CM’s of the two largest states.
Though Chouhan’s campaign mentions JCB as (Janata Chahti BJP) for Madhya Pradesh, it must be noted that the JCB has become synonymous with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his style of no-nonsense functioning against law and order issues.
The two states controlled by the BJP, amounting to over 100 Lok Sabha seats, have been playing an important part in assuring a clear majority for the saffron front in the lower house in 2014 and 2019. This realignment could have wide-ranging consequences on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, where again the BJP will be heavily leaning on these two states for securing a majority.
With 29 Lok Sabha seats, 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. The saffron unit hopes to maintain its central Indian citadel as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to seek his third consecutive term in the 2024 general elections.
However, unless the BJP fights as a united force the saffron front has no chance of securing power in Madhya Pradesh in next month’s polls as most surveys have already predicted a very close contest in the state.
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