BJP's resounding victory in MP will revive Modi Vs Chouhan rivalry

Some distance away from the hoopla over the supposed Modi wave sweeping the nation, it was Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who was winning the biggest victory on Sunday – in terms of numbers and margins – with a third term for him now appearing to be only a formality. Even as a havan was underway at the MP chief minister’s home as counting progressed for the 230-seat Assembly, it was evident that the ever-smiling Chouhan’s prayers had been answered. He was leading in both seats he is contesting from, Vidisha and Budhni. And the BJP was leading in 140 seats, the Congress trailing far behind at 76. The biggest element of his win, however, is that Sunday’s result re-ignites the Narendra Modi Vs Shivraj Singh Chouhan rivalry – two chief ministers with an accomplished track record of governance and development, both known to be powerful orators with Chouhan having the softer edge of being an expressly secular leader, known to celebrate every religious or cultural event of every community with equal festive fervour. As he enters a new term, Chouhan gets on par with Modi on one more factor – he becomes a third term chief minister. [caption id=“attachment_127388” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Readying for a third term. Reuters[/caption] While he was photographed wearing the skull cap on Eid, not long after Modi had declined to wear one, Chouhan now counters questions about the overt symbolism by saying he has worn a skull cap at various Muslim functions in the past and that it was nothing new. Even Madhya Pradesh’s Mukhya Mantri Teerth Darshan Yojna promotes pilgrimages not only to Hindu religious shrines but also to sites of worship visited by Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others. In fact, Chouhan won a huge image-building success when he flagged off a train for pilgrims to Ajmer Sharif from the Habibganj railway station in Bhopal. Besides Ajmer Sharif, such trains take senior citizens in MP who sign up for the scheme to 17 places of religious interest, including Badrinath, Kedarnath, Rameshwaram, Dwarka, Amritsar, Shravanabelagola and Vailankanni church. Needless to add, party patriarch Lal Krishna Advani has already made the suggestion that his choice for PM candidate may have been Chouhan, not Modi. Nobody will contest the fact that the BJP owes the Madhya Pradesh victory to Chouhan. In fact, if BJP leaders in the state were unsure of victory even on Saturday evening, it’s because a bevy of candidates were expected to win only if the strategy of piggybacking on the chief minister’s accomplishments paid off. If the substantial mid-morning leads in Madhya Pradesh are anything to go by, that strategy did pay off. In fact, on Saturday evening, BJP candidates were busy compiling complaints of sabotage against rebels within the party. “At least 40 candidates have sent in complaints to the organising secretary.. The number of persons accused of such practices is over 100. The sheer volume of these complaints points to the rot in the party machinery. The BJP has therefore decided to call a meeting of the disciplinary committee on 16 December to discuss the complaints,” a Firstpost report said. The trends from the leads in counting point to a pro-incumbency factor, and since several recontesting BJP MLAs were almost sure of being booed out by their constituencies, the pro-incombency can only be for Chouhan. the genial ‘mamaji’ who at the age of 54 has made a very quiet, under-stated ascension to the national scene as an alternative that cannnot be ignored. An ABVP general secretary in the 1980s and then secretary of the BJP’s youth wing, Chouhan was elected MLA in 1990, then went on to be elected MP in 1991. Chouhan is a five-time Lok Sabha MP. In 2003, following a BJP win in the MP Assembly, the BJP picked three other candidates before Chouhan was selected to be CM in 2005. Perhaps known best for his accessibility and his humble style of working especially while dealing with average citizens, Chouhan has been something of a lone soldier in the current election campaign. His much-lauded development schemes including the Ladli Laxmi Yojana (doles for school girls’ education) and his Kanyadaan Yojana (money from the state to conduct young women’s weddings) as well as his schemes for sanitation and infrastructure have won him all-around praise. Sociologist Shiv Viswanathan tells Economic Times that a key attribute of Chouhan has come to the fore, that he is electorally sensitive to the idea that communities should co-exist. “Chouhan wants to respect the diversity of his state. At the poll level, he is not seen as threatening by the minority communities, especially the Muslims, which unfortunately is not the case with Modi,” Visvanathan is quoted as saying. He also calls Chouhan the BJP’s emerging ‘second best bet". How this plays out for the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and what role Chouhan eventually wins will be known once the 2014 results are out.