The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s rhetoric and style as well as governance have changed after a section of the Congress Legislature Party led by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia switched to the BJP.
The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s rhetoric and style as well as governance have changed after a section of the Congress Legislature Party led by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia switched to the BJP.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s metamorphosis from a normal “mama” (uncle) to a distributor of welfare goods and “bulldozer mama” (uncle with the bulldozer) is not sudden, though there have been allegations of bulldozing into people’s homes. . Joining the communal clashes in Khargone district may seem so.
Since Mr Chouhan’s return to the chief minister’s seat in 2020, Mr Chouhan’s rhetoric and style as well as governance have changed after a section of the Congress legislature party led by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia switched to the BJP. Is. Chauhan.
There was a time when Christmas was celebrated at the chief minister’s residence in Shyamala hills in Bhopal, and the party’s lone Muslim woman candidate in the last assembly elections, Fatima Siddiqui, was escorted by Mr Chouhan when she went to file nomination papers. Now the talk is about anti-conversion law and liberal use of bulldozers to demolish properties of alleged criminals (many from a particular community) in Sheopur, Raisen, Shahdol and Seoni and now in action against communalism in Khargone. There violence.
Adopting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s metaphor of a successful ‘bulldozer’, Mr Chouhan not only borrows from a successful mobilization on the issue of law and order to crack down on crime, but also has a hard Hindutva line. This is a post-2020 event and is only a tactical aspect to the credit of Mr. Adityanath, whose larger strategic goal is to garner support within and outside the party in the 2023 elections.
generational change
Never a favorite of the national leadership after 2012, Mr Chouhan’s defeat in the 2018 elections saw a generational shift within the Madhya Pradesh BJP, a traditional stronghold of the party, with then party chief Amit Shah as his choice, Lok Sabha MP VD Sharma appointed to State unit chief, persons not known close to Mr. Chouhan. This was a clear indication that Mr. Chouhan’s less-than-simple equation might not survive the BJP’s tenure in the opposition.
This was followed by a rebellion in the Congress by Mr Scindia and the question of who from the BJP leadership could lead the party to victory in the by-elections to the 28 assembly seats that were due after 22 Congress MLAs joined the BJP. The answer was Mr Chouhan, but the conditions were tough, he was appointed chief minister only to fight the COVID-19 pandemic alone as Delhi took its time in approving his council of ministers.
Thus the battle lines are clearly being drawn between Mr. Chouhan, currently the longest-serving chief minister of the BJP, and the party’s post-Vajpayee era, rigid Hindutva appears to be the path Mr. Chouhan has chosen, his Avenicular I was toughened up with rare political choices.