Countdown for end of Shivraj’s tenure begins in Madhya Pradesh

With four consecutive defeats in bypolls in the last six months, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government of Madhya Pradesh seems to be fast losing grip over voters after 12 years of rule in the state. The Congress has won crucial bypolls in two assembly seats Mungaoli and Kolaras, which were seen as a semi-final before assembly elections due in November this year. Congress had earlier won Ater and Chitrakoot seats last year. The trend of results can be termed as people’s rejection of Chouhan’s governance, which has been under severe criticism due to unrest among farmers and agitating unemployed youth at large.

The recent defeat of ruling BJP is significant due to two reasons. One, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan used all possible efforts along with his entire cabinet to try and wrest the seats away from Congress party, but was defeated even in the particular village where he spent in the night to woo voters. He campaigned on an unprecedented scale well equipped with all resources but could not make a dent in the Lok Sabha constituency of Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Second, these bye polls were more prestigious because Jyotiraditya Scindia during his campaign had claimed that it is not a contest between two parties, but between him and Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Now Congress leaders and workers after winning the two seats are saying that people of Madhya Pradesh are fed up with BJP rule and they have made up their minds to elect a Congress government in the next assembly elections.

On the other hand, BJP is saying that both the seats were held by Congress, which were vacated by the death of elected MLAs of these two seats. So, they have only managed to retain their seats, and not snatch any BJP seat.

It is a fact that BJP in Madhya Pradesh is facing serious factionalism and intra-party disputes among leaders. There are a large number of BJP leaders including former state president Prabhat Jha, former chief ministers Uma Bharti and Babulal Gour, MP and nephew of Atal Behari Vajpayee Anoop Mishra, national general secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya and many more important party functionaries are openly against Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Apart from these leaders, Chouhan is also not even on talking terms with RSS in-charge of the state and BJP in-charge Vinay Sahasrabuddhe. In such a situation, there is no synergy in the party. There is a big gap between the government and the organisation.

On the other hand, the Congress party at least for now, is free from factionalism of the past. Both Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath are openly supporting Jyotiraditya Scindia as the Congress CM face for the next election. Digvijay Singh’s Narmada Parikrama Yatra too has been very helpful in galvanising the heretofore demoralised party cadre and supporters in remote villages.