 "Is BJP sidelining CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan ahead of MP polls?")
Is Shivraj Singh Chouhan being sidelined in Madhya Pradesh? That’s the question many are asking after the chief minister’s name did not appear on the BJP’s second candidate list for Assembly polls that are due at the end of the year. The ruling party has thus far declared candidates for 78 seats for polls to the 230-member House, including its first list of 39 names that was released in August. The name of Chouhan – the party’s longest-serving chief minister – has remained conspicuous by its absence from the candidate list. While the Congress has claimed this reflects a ‘lack of confidence’ on the saffron party’s part, Chouhan has said the development will ensure a big victory for the BJP as ‘all senior leaders will contest’ polls.
#WATCH | On BJP releasing three list of candidates for Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan says, "This has ensured BJP's big victory. All our senior leaders will contest..." pic.twitter.com/8oJuYiaMDr
— ANI (@ANI) September 26, 2023
Let’s take a closer look: What happened? The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday released its second list for the upcoming Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh. The list included some big hitters including national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, Union ministers Faggan Singh Kulaste from Niwas (ST), Prahlad Singh Patel from Narsinghpur, whose brother Jalam Singh Patel is the incumbent MLA, and Narendra Singh Tomar from Dimni. Along with the three Union ministers, the BJP has also fielded four Lok Sabha members Rakesh Singh, Riti Pathak, Ganesh Singh and Udaypratap Singh for the state Assembly polls.
The extent of their deployment has taken even many within the party by surprise.
Two of the ministers, Narendra Singh Tomar and Faggan Singh Kulaste, will be contesting from seats that were won by the Congress in 2018, while three of the four other Lok Sabha MPs will also fight in constituencies where the main Opposition party had emerged victorious in the last assembly polls. A former state BJP president, Tomar was appointed in July as the convenor of the party’s election management committee in Madhya Pradesh, a responsibility which required him to oversee the entire state. [caption id=“attachment_12840572” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Sources say the BJP wants ‘collective leadership’ to win the day in the upcoming Assembly polls Madhya Pradesh and other states. PTI[/caption] A three-term MP, Tomar was an MLA for two terms till 2008 and has been in Lok Sabha since 2009. Union minister Prahlad Singh Patel is a five-term Lok Sabha MP and has never been an MLA while Kulaste, a tribal leader, was last an MLA way back in 1992 before getting elected to Lok Sabha six times and Rajya Sabha once. What do experts say? As per NDTV, the ruling BJP is seemingly attempting to make the best possible use of its senior regional leaders. **“**By fielding seven sitting MPs, not only does the party want to win the weak seats, but also ensure that neighbouring seats too are influenced by these seasoned politicians’ continued presence,” the piece noted. Senior sources on Monday told the outlet that the party will not be putting forward a CM candidate in any of the elections slated to be held this year.
The party instead wants “collective leadership” to win the day.
Sources also on Monday claimed that it is ‘completely wrong’ to say Chouhan will not make the list of candidates, but added that “any leader can become chief minister” after the election. Sources told The Quint the development has come as a ‘shock’ for Chauhan. A senior party leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the outlet the move is a signal that the position of chief minister is up for grabs – as well as a tactic to counter anti-incumbency. Political commentator Dinesh Gupta told The Quint the BJP might add even some more big names to as a bulwark against anti-incumbency. “The BJP has shown its fear and panic in an attempt to counter the anti-incumbency against CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Second, the BJP is micromanaging its winning probability in every seat. That’s another strong reason why they have fielded so many MPs – and might field a few more,” Gupta added. As per India Today, this isn’t the first time the BJP has turned to this formula. The party in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls fielded five sitting Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs. However, just two MPs managed to emerge victorious. The BJP similarly fielded Union minister SP Singh Baghel against Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Karhal – only for Yadav to handily defeat his contender. In Tripura, the BJP fielded MP and Union minister Pratima Bhoumik. Bhoumik emerged victorious in Dhanpur Assembly constituency. Party leaders told PTI that the BJP leadership has sought to send out several messages with their choices while acknowledging the strong challenge the BJP faces from the Congress, which had bettered its tally in the state Assembly in 2018 for the first time after 1998. Amid a view that Chouhan, who led the BJP to massive wins in 2008 and 2013 before found wanting in 2018, is no longer the same political force, the party has sought to keep the leadership issue open by pitting many of its big names in the contest in a signal to those supporters who may no longer be drawn to him but remain sympathetic to it. It is also a message to these senior leaders, who include Vijayvargiya, long seen as an aspirant for the chief minister’s chair, that they should prove their mettle by ensuring a good show for the party before their leadership claim is considered sympathetically by its top brass, sources noted. With all regional satraps barring Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia fighting the assembly polls expected in November-December, the party is hopeful that this will minimise factional feuds, an issue that has plagued the state organisation, and result in a cohesive campaign. That they come from a mix of castes; Tomar and Rakesh Singh are Thakurs, Patel is a Lodh (OBC) and Ganesh Singh is a Kurmi (OBC) while Kulaste is from a tribal community, will be helpful in social messaging, its leaders said. Congress slams BJP The Congress, which is set to give BJP a tough fight in MP, slammed Chouhan, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath claimed the ruling party has accepted defeat in the state and played its “last bet of false hope”.
एमपी में हार स्वीकार कर चुकी भाजपा ने उम्मीद का आखरी झूठा दांव आज खेला है।
— Kamal Nath (@OfficeOfKNath) September 25, 2023
18.5 साल की भाजपाई सरकार और 15 साल से ज्यादा के शिवराज़ी विकास के दावों को नक्कारने वाली भाजपाई प्रत्याशियों की सूची करोड़ों कार्यकर्ताओं की पार्टी का दावा करने वाली भाजपा की आंतरिक हार पर पक्की मोहर है।…
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIn a post on X late Monday night, Nath claimed the BJP has accepted defeat in MP and played its “last bet of false hope”. “The candidates’ list of the BJP, which claims to have crores of party workers, is surely a stamp on the party’s internal defeat and refutes the claims of development during the eighteen-and-a-half years of BJP government and more than 15 years of Shivraj’s (Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) rule,” Nath said. The Congress leader also said the hollow claims of Madhya Pradesh’s development have been exposed and proved to be a “white lie”. Randeep Singh Surjewalla, meanwhile, claimed the BJP was trying to right a ‘sinking ship’ by roping in Central leaders.
मध्यप्रदेश में BJP की दूसरी लिस्ट का सच 👇
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) September 26, 2023
*हम तो डूबेंगे, तुम्हें भी ले डूबेंगे सनम*
18 सालों में मध्यप्रदेश को भाजपा की सरकार ने बर्बादी की कगार पर पहुँचा दिया। ये बात प्रदेश की जनता के साथ साथ भाजपा का केंद्रीय नेतृत्व भी जान रहा है। इसीलिए 15 दिन पहले श्रीमान अमित शाह और कल…
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said no matter who the BJP fields, people of the state have decided to oust it as he accused the saffron party of forming government in the state through the back door. The Congress has its tail up after defeating the BJP first in Himachal Pradesh in a close contest and then in Karnataka in a landslide, following a series of reverses it has suffered at the hands of the ruling party.
Its leader Rahul Gandhi had recently claimed that his party is “certainly” winning in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
In the 2018 polls, the Congress won 114 seats while the BJP bagged 109 seats. The Congress then formed government under Kamal Nath, but it collapsed in March 2020 after a rebellion by MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia, paving the way for Shivraj Singh Chouhan to return as CM. Following bypolls due to legislators switching sides after the rebellion, the BJP now has 126 MLAs in the 230-member House, while the Congress has 96 legislators. With inputs from agencies
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