The longest-serving BJP chief minister and popularly known as mama (maternal uncle) and 'paon-paon wale bhaiya' (foot soldier), Shivraj Singh Chouhan has emerged as the hero of his party's stunning victory in the state assembly elections. The 64-year-old politician sought to turn the tables in BJP's favour in Madhya Pradesh by launching a game-changer scheme like 'Ladli Behna' to beat anti-incumbency, though his party had refrained from projecting him as the CM face in last month's assembly elections.
In March 2020, when the Congress government collapsed after a coup by the current civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and MLAs loyal to him, Chouhan, despite his party losing polls by a whisker in 2018, retained confidence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) whose central leadership chose him the chief minister for a fourth term. The BJP contested the November 17 assembly polls mainly using the aura of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but Chouhan, who took over as the CM at the age of 46 in 2005, remains a formidable contender for the top post among a crowded pool of aspirants after the saffron party retained power in the state.
As the BJP shone brightly in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday registering a huge win in the assembly elections, victory eluded 12 ministers of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet, including Home Minister Narottam Mishra.
Mishra lost from Datia seat by a margin of 7,742 votes to Congress candidate Rajendra Bharti.
Ministers Arvind Bhadoria from Ater, Kamal Patel from Harda and Gaurishankar Bisen from Balaghat are among those who faced defeat.
Prem Singh Patel from Badwani, Mahendra Singh Sisodiya from Bamori, Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon from Badnawar, Bharat Singh Kushwaha from Gwalior rural, Ramkhelawan Patel from Amarpatan and Suresh Dhakad from Pohri could not make to the list of winning candidates.
Sisodiya and Dattigaon are close associates of Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. Dattigaon was defeated by Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat, who Shekhawat switched over to the Congress from BJP just ahead of the elections.
Besides, Rahul Singh Lodhi, nephew of former chief minister Uma Bharti, was trounced from Khargapur. Another minister Ram Kishor Kawre too faced defeat from Paraswada.
BJP candidate Imarti Devi, also a Scindia loyalist candidate, lost from Dabra by 2,267 votes to Congress’ Suresh Raje.
Sitting BJP MP from Satna, Ganesh Singh, lost by 4,041 votes to Congress’ Dabbu Siddharth Sukhlal Kushwaha.
Among the prominent candidates who are trailing is sitting MLA from Chanchoura, Laxman Singh who is the younger brother of senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. He is trailing by over 60,000 votes after 19 of 21 rounds of counting.
Of the 230 seats in MP, the BJP had won 160 and was leading in 3 as per the latest data shared by the Election Commission. The Congress won 64 seats and was ahead in two, it said.
Triangular contest
Sitting MP from Satna since 2004, Ganesh Singh also lost from the Satna Assembly seat against the Congress’s Siddharth Kushwaha by a margin of 4,041 votes. The seat was stuck in a triangular contest after the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) fielded Shiva Ratnakar Chaturbedi from the seat which has a significant Brahmin population. Mr. Chaturbedi polled 33,567 votes.
Union Agriculture Minister and BJP’s election management committee chief for the Madhya Pradesh polls, Narendra Singh Tomar, won from Chambal belt’s Dimani seat by 24,461 votes. Mr. Tomar was given a fight by BSP’s Balveer Singh Dandotiya who remained runner-up with 54,676 votes, while sitting MLA and Congress candidate Ravindra Singh Tomar could only manage 24,006 votes.
The Minister had to contest a tough battle from the seat with several people complaining of disconnect from his side. He was also marred with a controversy just days before the polling after some video clips allegedly showing his son discussing “transactions worth thousands of crores of rupees with a middleman”. Mr. Tomar had denied the allegations following scathing attacks from the Congress.
Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel comfortably won from Narsingpur seat defeating the Congress’s Lakhan Singh Patel by 31,310 votes. Mr. Patel’s brother Jalam Singh Patel had won the seat in 2018 but was not fielded this time around. Mr. Prahlad Patel had also actively campaigned for the party in the Mahakoshal region, a Congress stronghold. The BJP has made significant gains in the region by winning 21 seats as compared to 13 in 2018.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayavargiya, Congress’s Kamal Nath and former minister Ram Niwas Rawat are among the prominent faces that have emerged victorious in the state polls.
Chouhan retained his Budhni seat by a margin of 1,04,974 votes by defeating TV actor-turned-Congress leader Vikram Mastal Sharma, a poll official said.
Chouhan won for the sixth time from the Budhni seat. He had won his maiden election from Budhni way back in 1990 and was elected as a Member of Parliament for the first time from the Vidisha constituency the following year.
The longest-serving chief minister of a BJP-ruled state and popularly known as ‘mama’ (maternal uncle) and ‘paon-paon wale bhaiya’ (foot soldier), Chouhan was not projected this time as the party’s CM face. However, he turned the tables in favour of the ruling party by launching game-changer schemes like ‘Ladli Behna’ to beat prevailing anti-incumbency.
Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, a potential contender for the CM’s post, won from Dimani assembly seat in Morena district by defeating BSP’s Balveer Singh Dandotiya by 24,461 votes.
Another prominent winner and contender for the top position is Union minister Prahlad Patel, who won from the Narsinghpur assembly seat by a margin of 31,310 votes by defeating Lakhan Singh Patel of Congress.
BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, another potential chief ministerial candidate, was fielded from the Indore-1 seat, which was considered a difficult one for him.
But knowing his track record of winning polls from different seats in the Indore district, Vijayvargiya bagged the Indore-1 seat by 57,939 votes defeating Congress’ candidate and sitting MLA Sanjay Shukla.
Though state Congress president Kamal Nath won from his home turf Chhindwara by defeating BJP’s Vivek Bunty Sahu by 36,594 votes, the loss of the party and its poor performance has taken away all the sheen from his victory.
In the political battlefield, Jyotiraditya Scindia has emerged as the lynchpin, orchestrating a match-winning performance that not only secured his political fate but also steered BJP to triumph. The victory carries a unique sweetness for Scindia, whose strategic moves played a pivotal role in the decisive win.
The outcome also determined the fate of the loyalists who followed him from Congress into BJP, even though some of his aides were defeated. The party's faith in him - from an RS seat to Union cabinet berths - has been rewarded . In his home turf Gwalior, where the tussle was intense, Scindia's strategic acumen was put to the test. The landscape saw a shift, with BJP securing only two of the six seats in Gwalior, a stark contrast to Scindia's previous influence. BJP won 18 of the 34 Gwalior-Chambal seats, where other leaders like Narottam Singh Tomar also hold sway. When Scindia was with Congress, the party won 26 seats and he was credited for it.
Scindia's road to victory was riddled with personal attacks against him, including one on his height by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Scindia maintained his calm and countered them with one memorable remark: "There is a saying: 'jhooth bole kauwa kaate'. I am the 'kala kauwa' for Congress." The repercussions of the attacks were felt swiftly.
