Though he had resisted it earlier, the former Chief Minister is now mentally prepared to move to the Centre after party’s defeat in Madhya Pradesh.
New Delhi: Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was recently appointed as the national vice-president of the BJP, is poised to get a “larger and active” role in the party after the 2019 elections, irrespective of the BJP’s performance in the polls, party sources here have stated.
According to top BJP sources, the 59-year-old Chouhan, a five-time MP and Chief Minister for 13 years of a major state like Madhya Pradesh, has emerged as the top five leaders of the party who has a mass base and his claim to a bigger and prominent role at the national level cannot be ignored now.
Party sources said that a section within the party and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) feel that in case BJP fails this time to repeat its 2014 performance, Chouhan will be the best bet to lead the party’s charge in the next five years as he has age on his side. This section opines that Chouhan, like Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, has cordial relationship with the RSS leadership as well as the leaders of Opposition parties.
“Irrespective of whether we come back to power or not, Chouhan’s profile is poised to look up in the coming few months. He will be contesting from Vidisha parliamentary constituency and become one of the prominent faces of the party at the national level in the coming months,” a senior BJP leader said.
According to the sources, Chouhan, who is presently an MLA from Budhni, too is mentally prepared now to move to the Centre, unlike in the past when he was reluctant and had refused the offer of a berth in the Union Cabinet.
Chouhan released a video on Tuesday wishing people on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. A picture of BJP patriarch L.K. Advani was seen in the background, but no photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi or party president Amit Shah was visible in the video.
Commenting on this, a party functionary said, “Contrary to popular perception, Chouhan is very immaculate in whatever he does, careful in what he says and very thoughtful about his actions and the hidden message that he wants to give. Advani’s picture in the background in the video too has its connotations. He has released several such videos in the past but this is for the first time that Advani’s picture has been given a space.”
Recently, Sanghpriya Gautam, one of the BJP’s founding members, had stated that if the BJP wants to come back to power, it should appoint Chouhan as the party chief, Gadkari the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rajnath Singh the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
“Chouhan is perhaps the most senior leader of the party when it comes to experience. He prefers staying in the background, something which the RSS likes very much. Post the MP Assembly results, he has said that he does not want to leave Madhya Pradesh, thereby giving a message that he is not after any big role in the national level,” stated a journalist, who has extensively covered Chouhan’s political career.
“The video clip in which Advani was prominently displayed is a message to other party leaders. He is a very seasoned politician and will never publicly reveal what he really wants. He knows that his time will come, rather has come,” he added.