Shivraj Singh Chouhan desperately wants to become the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for the fourth time. But overthrowing the Kamal Nath-led Congress government would be the most undignified way for the three-time CM to come to power.
The palpable desperation to become the chief minister through underhand tactics shows how twisting people’s mandate and insulting the electoral process is acceptable but being out of power is not. For a leader like Chouhan, who is known to be humble, grounded and who enjoys massive popularity in his turf, this should frankly be more humiliating than a sign of victory for the BJP.
With the Kamal Nath government trying to buy itself some more time by averting the strength display in the assembly Monday, Chouhan swiftly moved the Supreme Court seeking an immediate floor test.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan — the beloved mamaji of Madhya Pradesh — is now an out-of-power, lonely leader who now has a fresh reason to feel insecure in the form of Congress-import Jyotiraditya Scindia. And this insecurity has now become more than apparent, even for a calm and measured leader like him.
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The Chouhan of today
It isn’t easy to sit out of power when you have been in power for 13 years, and have been all-powerful in the BJP with no challengers.
It’s even more difficult when you lose the election by a mere whisker. What makes this worse is that a state you lose under your leadership goes on to become the one that your party sweeps in the Lok Sabha polls just six months later.
To add to it, you are reduced to just sitting in opposition in the state, waiting for the next election five years away and no hope for a national role. As if all of this wasn’t enough, a young, popular and charismatic leader from the rival side is brought in, creating the fear of a possible division of power centres and bringing in unwelcome competition.
For Shivraj Singh Chouhan, these factors have all bunched together to create a multiplier effect of insecurity, desperation and greed for power.
He was ferocious and competitive during his speech at the event to mark Scindia’s entry at BJP’s Bhopal headquarters last week. Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave a rousing, election speech rather than a welcome address. He called Kamal Nath names, made several allegations against the Congress government, but more interestingly, referred to Scindia as ‘Vibhishan’ — a traitor analogy which the ‘Maharaja’ of Gwalior is unlikely to find flattering.
In an interview to ThePrint last week, Chouhan evaded a question on whether he would become CM again, but his ambition and intention were made apparent by his remarks that the Kamal Nath government had lost its majority. He reiterated it Monday saying that even coronavirus emergency can’t save the Kamal Nath government.
In a way, Narendra Modi has been Chouhan’s contemporary. But while he managed to step out of his home state Gujarat and become the PM, Chouhan was left behind. Even Home Minister Amit Shah succeeded in breaking out of the state mould to become a national leader. For Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Madhya Pradesh is all he has, and Madhya Pradesh is what he needs to guard. The frantic desire to become CM through questionable means, therefore, overrides the political kick of acquiring that chair after legitimately winning an election.
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MP’s much-loved mamaji
Shivraj Singh Chouhan may not be Modi, but in his home state, he has been the king. Chouhan is loved by his voters, and continues to enjoy pan-state popularity and goodwill.
When I travelled through Madhya Pradesh ahead of the 2018 assembly election, what stood out was how Chouhan was liked and respected even by those who said they will not vote for the BJP this time.
Unlike his counterparts — Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh and Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan — both of whom also lost in the 2018 December polls, Chouhan had little to worry about. He did not lose because he became unpopular, he lost merely because of this fatigue factor – rather than voter ire – with a three-term government.
Such is the strength of his image of being grounded that Scindia in his speech last week had to include his name in his ‘only Shivraj and I don’t use the AC in our cars’ statement.
For a leader of his stature, this desperate bid to become the chief minister by toppling an elected government is nothing but a fall from grace. More so, because it isn’t even as if he has used his political acumen to engineer the Congress rebellion. It was the Congress that caused its own downfall, and Amit Shah-esque brains of the party that are constantly ticking to make sure this becomes advantage BJP. Chouhan is merely trying to be an unintended beneficiary of this episode.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan might not become the chief minister immediately, but would show greater moral courage if he has the gumption to declare he would fight an election and win the people’s mandate instead of taking the chief minister’s chair as a sorry hand-out.
Views are personal.