How MP chief miner Shivraj Chouhan looks for image makeover before 2023 polls

BHOPAL: Twenty months before the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, chief miner Shivraj Singh Chouhan is in election mode and is trying to change his earlier image of a soft persona to that of “bulldozer mama” who is benevolent towards the poor and willing to take errant officials to task. Redrawing the image became more visible for Chouhan after the victory of Yogi Adityanath in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, where the latter was branded as a hard task master and “bulldozer baba” against the mafia. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, reaped electoral benefits in UP for providing free ration and building houses, there creating a new electoral constituency of beneficiaries. Chouhan is trying to repeat the same in Madhya Pradesh, which would be going to polls in November-December 2023 along with the Congress- ruled Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. In 2018, the BJP lost to the Congress six seats in Madhya Pradesh, enabling the grand old party to return to power in the state after 15 years. However, Chouhan became the chief miner again in March 2020 after 18 rebel Congress MLAs resigned. While the Congress state unit is facing intense infighting with a section of leaders complaining to party president Sonia Gandhi against MP Congress president Kamal Nath, Chouhan has addressed 15 public rallies and chaired 17 meetings with officers in the past one month to improve implementation of government schemes. In these meetings, officials said, Chouhan warned them of action if they fail to ensure proper delivery of the government schemes. At a cabinet meeting in Panchmarhi in mid-March, Chouhan has set targets for miners for the next 20 months, officials said. POPULISM Since March 10, when results for state elections in five states were announced, Chouhan has announced restart of schemes such as Teerth Darshan Scheme (in which elderly get money for free pilgrimage), Kanya Vivah Scheme, where ₹55,000 is given to girls from poor families for marriage and Ladli Laxmi Scheme, where a certain amount of money is deposited in account of girls till age of 18. The Teerth Darshan Scheme was introduced in 2012 and discontinued the then Congress government in 2018. The Kanya Vivah Scheme was discontinued due to Covid 19. A senior government official familiar with the development said the three schemes were most popular in the state and played an important role in popularising Shivraj Singh Chouhan as ‘mama (maternal uncle)’ and that is the reason the chief miner is focusing more on them. Chouhan is also making an attempt to regain the trust of farmers, who voted for the Congress in large numbers in 2018, especially in Malwa and Nimar regions, once considered the BJP’s strongholds. In 2013, the BJP won 56 seats out of 66 seats but in 2018, the BJP won only 28 seats and the main reason was losing the trust of farmers after the police firing in Mandsaur in which five farmers were killed in 2018. Chouhan has now announced waiver of interest on farm loan provided farmers repay the principal amount. State agriculture miner Kamal Patel said the farmers were misguided the Congress government during elections. “After coming to power, the Congress failed to waive farm loans which resulted in farmers becoming defaulters. To help farmers, the government has decided to waive interest of the loan.” The chief miner has also announced to set up a new Tribal Development Corporation to create new job opportunities for tribal people. The government has also increased allocation for welfare of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women in the budget. BULLDOZER MAMA With welfare schemes, Chouhan is trying to send a message to voters that he is tough against mafias and criminals. “Mama’s bulldozer has started, now it will not stop till the miscreants are buried. Their houses will be razed. I ended dacoits from the state and now I will end the mafias and criminals,” the CM said at a public meeting on March 20. After this statement, the BJP put posters across the state presenting the CM as bulldozer mama with data showing that in the past two years, the state government has demolished 127 buildings belonging to people termed as mafia or criminals. At a meeting on March 19, Chouhan told officers that they should deliver or else they would be transferred. “I am clearly saying that I don’t want to see any mercy for criminals, any corruption and any delay in the implementation of the schemes. If the officers have any problem, I will transfer them but I will not stop the campaign of weeding out criminals from MP and helping the poor,” he told the officials. Identifying a clear change in Chouhan’s political track, a senior BJP leader said the chief miner started attempting to change his image of being “soft” and “suave” after speculation started that he would be removed. “He (Chouhan) is trying to show that he is a hard taskmaster. The CM, who earlier used to rely on the officers, is now giving them a tough message of action,” said the leader. The Congress, however, believes that Chouhan’s image makeover will have no impact in 2023. “CM Chouhan has expertise in holding programmes and events and relaunching of old schemes. They spent public money to organise a cabinet meeting at a hill station just to misguide the public. Congress leaders believe in doing solid work without events. The CM should understand that he lost charisma and his attempt of rebuilding his image will not work,” said spokesperson MP Congress Committee Narendra Saluja. MP BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said, “There is nothing like building image. The BJP-led state government came into power due to misrule of 15 months of the Congress government. The BJP never works to win the election but always works to help the poor and to win the hearts of people,” he said. Political analyst Girja Shankar said, “In UP, the BJP won the election because of Yogi Adityanath’s image and not only because of the work and policies of the state government. In MP, Chouhan has realised that along with the government’s work, his image is also important to remain in power.” Shankar added that the senior BJP leadership has given him a chance to revive the image and the CM is working in that direction. Deepak Tiwari, another political analyst, said Chouhan was the first BJP leader to show that the party is for the poor and downtrodden and not just Brahmans and Vaishyas. “After 2018, the BJP in MP focused on hardcore Hindutva plank and Chouhan started following Yogi Adityanath. It is tough to say how it will benefit him in next year’s election but he shouldn’t leave the originality,” he said.

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She is a senior reporter based at Bhopal. She covers higher education, social issues, youth affairs, woman and child development related issues, sports and business & industries.
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