New Delhi: When assembly elections were announced, Madhya Pradesh was considered the weakest link for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) among four other states going to polls. However, the party is now headed for a landslide victory with more than 150 seats in its kitty. Incumbent BJP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has played a key role in the party's victory as Modi Magic failed to bear fruits for the party in recently held assembly elections. He is a popular figure among the OBC community, and he has been able to connect with Dalits and tribals as well.


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Chouhan's popularity was evident in the results. The BJP won a majority of seats in the OBC-dominated regions of the state. It also made inroads into Congress strongholds in the Mahakaushal, Chambal, and Bastar regions.


Rahul Gandhi's Failure


Rahul Gandhi's India Jodo Yatra was seen as a major test for the Congress. The party promised to conduct a caste census in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan if it won. However, this promise did not resonate with voters. Buoyed by the caste census conducted in Bihar by Nitish Kumar-Tejashwi Yadav led alliance government, Rahuld Gandhi expanded the scope by promising proportional representation to the community if voted to power in MP. He did not realise that Shivraj himself has been considered the champion of the OBC community since days when the BJP was called 'Baniyon ki Party'. 


The Congress also tried to make an issue out of an incident in which a BJP leader urinated on a poor tribal Dashmat Rawat. But Chouhan's handling of the situation, in which he washed his feet and hugged her, helped to defuse the controversy.


Rahul’s Guarantees Rejected


Ever since the Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan governments decided to bring back the Old Pension Scheme, Narendra Modi has been attacking freebies politics. There was a time when it seemed that only because of the Old Pension Scheme, the BJP could suffer losses across the country. But the Modi government continued to warn of the danger of a shortage in the treasury due to this scheme.


The guarantee that Kamal Nath made in MP on the advice of Rahul Gandhi-Priyanka Gandhi also included the Old Pension Scheme. In addition, it promised to waive power tariff up to 100 units, a cylinder at Rs 500, Rs 1,500 per month for Nari Samman Yojna, and Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 to school children. To end the popularity of Mama, as Shivraj is popularly known among half the population, the Congress also announced to give Rs 2 lakh under the Meri Beti Rani scheme. However voters have rejected it reposing faith on the leader who has been delivering for them.


Shivraj The CM


A curious incident happened on September 24 in Bhopal. When Amit Shah was irritated by a journalist's question about whether the BJP would field Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the CM candidate. He replied that Shivraj is the CM right now, we will see what happens later.


Exactly ten days later, Shivraj Singh Chouhan was in Dindori. Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi had already made a jibe about Shivraj, saying that the PM does not even take his name from the stage these days. Then Shivraj took the command in his own hands. In the Dindori meeting, he roared at the crowd, asking if he was running a bad government. He then asked the crowd if they wanted him to be the CM. When the crowd said yes, Shivraj asked for a promise of votes.


Shivraj also became emotional several times during the meetings. In Budhni, among the women, he said that if he was not around, they would miss a brother like him. However, in Khandwa, he also said that he does not have any greed for the post. So In nutshell, when the high command hesitated to declare Shivraj as the CM candidate, he himself did so.


In such a scenario It would be very difficult to ignore the old powerhouse in Shivraj when elected MLAs of BJP would sit to election the leader of the legislature party.