Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s name is missing from the candidates’ lists that have been declared so far. It’s a pretty strange list, as those expecting their name on the list are disappointed and those who were not expecting to figure as candidate are taken by surprise; as apparently was the case with BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. He will be contesting an election after nearly ten years, as BJP candidate from Indore. Recently Shivraj Singh Chouhan was heard asking a crowd in his constituency whether he should contest or not. The crowd obligingly replied with chants of Mamaji-Mamaji (that is how Shivraj is known amongst his followers). At another rally in Sehore the CM borrowed a line from a popular Bollywood song telling the crowd, “jab main chala jaunga bahut yaad aaunga (you will remember me when I am gone)”. Will this strategy help the BJP fight the anti-incumbency against the sitting CM? That is the key question before the voters of Madhya Pradesh.
Kamal Nath is in the building
Unlike Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Congress chief ministerial candidate Kamal Nath will be contesting the Assembly elections in the state. Recently the BJP rumour mill was abuzz with the possibility that Nath will not be contesting but he has since denied it. Unlike Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Nath is leading from the front and has been working for this comeback well before the elections were in the offing. He began his comeback campaign the minute he lost his seat to the BJP, and has been camping in the state ever since. Those who expected him at his old haunts in the national capital were surprised by his commitment to state politics. So much so, at a book launch in the capital a few months ago he chided the audience saying that those who lived in Lutyens Delhi were not as much in touch with the ground reality as those living in rural India. This jibe and Nath’s born again Hindu card seems more BJP like than Congress but Nath’s strategy clearly is to beat the BJP at its own game. Which is why Congress leaders espousing Udhayanidhi Stalin’s comments on Sanatan Dharma were sent a cold snub from Madhya Pradesh. It is very clear that it is Nath who is driving the Congress election campaign in Madhya Pradesh.
HAS YASHODHARA RAJE QUIT POLITICS?
Recently, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, the sitting MLA from Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh, announced that she would not be contesting the Assembly elections. In an emotionally charged message she bid farewell to a constituency which she has represented four times as MLA and one which she has nurtured with so much love and apnapan (one-ness) for nearly three decades. Ostensibly, we are told, she is stepping aside for health reasons. But could there be more to it? There are rumours that her nephew and now a BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Jyotiraditya Scindia could be contesting from Shivpuri instead of her. Jyotiraditya’s name is also on the list of possible CM contenders should the BJP win the state. So there still may be a Scindia contesting from Shivpuri after all. Which also brings us to another question—who will then be contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Guna? But that’s another story.