Against The Tide

Wary of anti-incumbency, BJP leadership wants to remove Shivraj Singh Chouhan; but he is no pushover.

- Deepak Tiwari

Shivraj Singh Chouhan is an exceptional swimmer—he learned swimming in the turbulent Narmada, which flows behind his ancestral house in Jait village in Sehore. He has been equally dextrous in the stormy politics in Madhya Pradesh since he became chief minister in 2005. He survived many allegations of corruption to lead the BJP to victory in two assembly polls and has retained the Midas touch. The BJP won nine of ten assembly by-polls in the state in the past three years.

That, however, might not be good enough to make him lead the party in the assembly elections late next year. At least the urgency in Chouhan’s acts says as much. A week ago, he hurriedly banned the use of polythene bags, saying that they killed cows who ate them. The same day, he shouted at a senior police officer for not giving a licence to a Maharashtra-based company. It was quite unlike Chouhan.

It is said that the RSS nudged him to act fast on both occasions. And, he knows he needs to keep the Sangh in good humour to keep his chair, especially after the BJP’s impressive victory in Uttar Pradesh.

After three successive terms, anti incumbency is going to play a part against the BJP in the assembly elections. Some leaders say that this factor will be stronger if Chouhan leads the party in the election. The party does not want to lose a big state, which has 29 Lok Sabha seats, especially a few months before the Lok Sabha elections due in May 2019.

The rumours of Chouhan being removed became loud when Manohar Parrikar quit as defence minister to go back to Goa as chief minister. In fact, a spokesperson for the Madhya Pradesh government had to clarify that Chouhan was not going anywhere.