Politics | Back as CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has his task cut out

Kamlendra Kanwar

With the return of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in Madhya Pradesh time has come a full circle in the state’s politics. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was Chief Minister for 13 years is back in the saddle. The 15-month-old Kamal Nath-led Congress government fell after Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia left the party and joined the BJP—along with him about two dozen MLAs also switched camp.

The 22 legislators who joined the BJP after deserting the Congress belonged to the Scindia faction. The scion of the Gwalior royal family Scindia had been sore for quite a while at being ignored by the Congress high command even as the old guard, of Nath and former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, assumed dominance in Madhya Pradesh. He was denied chief ministership and purported promises to him to anoint him as Pradesh Congress Committee chief were not honoured. The last straw on the camel’s back was when he was not the first of the two names to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

The BJP, hurt by the manner in which Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray was hijacked by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to set up the ruling alliance in Maharashtra, was looking for an opportunity to get even with the Congress, and found it in Scindia’s revolt. In a quid pro quo, Scindia quit the Congress to join the BJP and his legislator-supporters formed a group that was holed up in a Bengaluru resort insulated from the Congress until the appropriate time arrived for them to cross over to the BJP.

The former Congressmen (now in the BJP) are waiting to be rewarded with ministerial berths in the new government under Chouhan, while Scindia has obtained a BJP nomination to the Rajya Sabha.

For the BJP, Chouhan was always the frontrunner, though briefly Narendra Singh Tomar’s name too did the rounds. The old warhorse that Chouhan is, he was finally considered the safest bet at a time when crucial by-elections are slated which would have a bearing on the longevity of the new government.

Soon after his swearing-in late night on March 23, Chouhan said his first priority would be to combat Covid-19. He evidently has his priorities in order.

Speculation is rife on how many ministerial berths the Scindia faction would be getting. While eight is a number that is deemed to be likely, inevitably, in such situations there would be pulls and counter pulls. What figure the BJP top brass settles for would be dependent on the jockeying at the state level.

Be that as it may, unlike the faction-ridden Congress, where stability was always an issue, the BJP government would predictably be stable. If things go according to plan, the BJP government would complete its term.

The first hurdle would of course be the by-elections to 25 assembly seats: 22 MLAs resigning or being expelled from the Congress, one BJP MLA resigning and two seats falling vacant after the demise of sitting members (both from the BJP).

The BJP would indeed have to do very well in those to re-assert its hold on power. That it would come out triumphant is well on the cards, especially because the party is well-organised and has learnt some lessons from the debacle that led to the loss of power.

Many other lessons need to be learnt in the context of return to power. Corruption is an albatross around the neck of the BJP’s state unit. It will now need to reform itself and establish its credentials as a non-corrupt party with an undying spirit of service to the community.

Bureaucratic hurdles, red tape and the lack of ease of doing business are other roadblocks in the path of efficient functioning of a government. The new government would be tested on these parameters.

That the BJP lost power should constantly remind its leaders of the need to justify the people’s trust. The onus would be on Chouhan to prove his credentials as a leader who can lend a measure of stability to Madhya Pradesh and meet the challenges that the new dispensation would be faced with.

Kamlendra Kanwar is a senior journalist. Views are personal.