Caste equations may be behind Shivraj's campaign comeback

By Wednesday evening, the the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi would have addressed a dozen and a half election rallies and road shows.

- SANDEEP KUMAR

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has been on the road for the past month, has addressed eight to ten public meetings on a daily basis.

However, at the start of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s election campaign, this two pronged campaign strategy featuring Modi and Chouhan wasn't evident. The BJP opened its campaign in the state with the theme song "MP ke man mein Modi" (MP is close to Modi's heart).

The central leadership fielded seven of the party's Lok Sabha members, including three Union ministers and a party general secretary, perhaps, in a tacit admission that Chouhan wasn't the face of the campaign. Until 2018, the chief minister led the pre-election "Jan Ashirwad Yatra" campaign. This time, the party organised five campaigns with five different leaders.