Shivraj and his rule lose relevance

Both ousted chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his 13-year tenure seem to have lost relevance for the BJP as it gears up for the Lok Sabha election in Madhya Pradesh.

Shivraj Singh is ranked 13th in the 16-member state election management committee formed for the Lok Sabha election. Even cabinet ministers in the Shivraj government have been placed above the former chief minister in the list. Other prominent state BJP leaders including state BJP president Rakesh Singh, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, vice president Prabhat Jha and general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya are among top five in the list.

Shivraj Singh was recently made BJP national vice president but he was mentioned in the list as former chief minister.

Moreover, state BJP office-bearers’ meeting on Wednesday did not consider any of the Shivraj Singh government’s ‘great achievements’ worthy enough to highlight in the run-up for the parliamentary poll. The main issues for the polls, according to BJP sources, will be 10% reservation to upper castes and Ram temple in Ayodhya. During campaigning for the recent Assembly election, Shivraj Singh’s ‘visionary leadership in getting Madhya Pradesh rid of BIMARU tag” was the main focus of the party.

After the poll debacle, the former chief minister is struggling hard to remain relevant. He has been travelling the state alone, espousing causes of farmers without the party’s explicit authorisation. His request to go on a state-wide journey for expressing gratitude to the state’s people for support to the BJP was turned down last month.

Chouhan’s attempts to hog the limelight by condemning the Kamal Nath government over murders of three BJP and RSS workers in the past one month boomeranged on him. In all three murders in Mandsaur, Badwani and Ratlam districts, the killers turned out to be the party’s own men. In the Ratlam case, the police discovered that the RSS man who was thought to be murdered turned out to be the killer. He had killed his servant to claim Rs 20 lakh of insurance policy.

Mocking at the former chief minister’s fall from grace within the BJP, Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza remarked that “Chouhan is of no use to the BJP now and will be told to join the Margdarshak Mandal of the party. This use and throw policy betray the BJPs mindset”.