Bhopal: The basic issues of water,
electricity and roads are likely to take centrestage in the
2013 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections as they had in 2003.
During the 2003 assembly elections, the Congress under
the leadership of its then Chief Minister Digvijay Singh
secured less than 40 of the total 230 seats in the assembly
while the BJP romped home with more than 170 seats.
Almost eight years after Digvijay Singh lost the
assembly elections for his party, the state is still grappling
with the issues of electricity, roads and water.
There is no doubt that at least some roads in the
state have shown a marked improvement in their condition but
the same cannot be said about all roads.
In fact, right now the ruling BJP and the opposition
Congress are locked in a battle over the condition of roads in
the state.
The BJP contends that the condition of the national
highways passing through the state is very bad while the
Congress maintains that the state highways are also in
precarious condition.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has written a
letter to the Central government to draw its attention to the
poor condition of the national highways passing through the
State.
The Chief Minister in his letter said that since the
Centre was unable to maintain the national highways, it should
hand over to the State the task of looking after them.
Responding to this, the State Congress President,
Kantilal Bhuria said that Chouhan had no right to talk about
the national highways at a time when the condition of the
State highways themselves was very bad.
Bhuria also said that the Chief Minister was an expert
in passing the buck and it was because of this that he was
blaming the Centre for the poor condition of the national
highways in the State.
"In my view, Chouhan should first take an interest in
the condition of the State highways and only after improving
them, should he talk about the national highways," he said.
Power crisis had hit the Digvijay Singh government as
the State plunged into darkness after the carving of
Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh.
However, the Madhya Pradesh BJP President, Prabhat
expressed confidence that the ruling party would give
round-the-clock power supply to Madhya Pradesh from Diwali
this year.
This year the State has witnessed more than normal
rainfall but one bad monsoon can change the whole situation.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, September 18, 2011, 15:19