TIT-FOR-TAT YATRA
CM Chouhan is on a statewide rally, and the Congress is on his tail with a counter
On July 14, BJP chief Amit Shah flagged off Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Jan ashirwad yatra from Ujjain to seek the voters’ ‘blessings’ ahead of the upcoming assembly polls. It was the second such, Union minister Rajnath Singh having launched a similar roadshow in neighbouring Chhattisgarh in May, with another one planned for Rajasthan, the third BJP-ruled state headed for elections.
As in 2008 and 2013, Chouhan hopes to use the statewide exercise to re-engage with voters, get feedback on incumbent BJP legislators and weed out the weaker ones. But this time, the opposition aims to throw a spanner in the works. The Congress, now collectively headed by three party heavyweights—Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia—is on a jan jagran (awakening) yatra or pol khol yatra that will trail Chouhan across the state, with counter-rallies where the CM spoke, to expose the “true state of affairs”.
Launched by state party chief Nath from the Ujjain township of Tarana on July 18, the Congress yatra will be using the four-day lag to expose the BJP government in
MP. “It’s a deliberate plan,” says Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi. “We will make a point-by-point rebuttal of all the BJP’s claims.”
At the start of the BJP yatra at Nanakhedi in Ujjain, Shah lost no time taking potshots at the Congress: “I urge Congressmen to follow Chouhan’s yatra. They will then discover why the BJP is in power in 19 states,” he thundered with the chief minister at his side. “An udyogpati (industrialist) and a maharaja will never triumph over a kisan putra (Chouhan),” he said, alluding to Nath and Scindia, the Congress’s campaign committee chief.
For his part, Nath described Chouhan’s roadshow as a “jan chhalav yatra (journey to con people)”. He pointed out that all the arrangements for the BJP programme were made by the state government. The Congress chief even wrote a letter to Mahakal baba, the resident deity of the Mahakal temple, where Chouhan and Shah prayed before launching their yatra, reminding voters of the CM’s failed promises from 2013.
Meanwhile, Chouhan will, in this yatra, touch all the 230 assembly constituencies before it ends at Nagod in Satna district on September 25. He will travel in—and address meetings from—two specially customised buses (one each for western and eastern MP). He’s looking to peak with a major show in the state capital Bhopal.
Chouhan’s earlier pre-poll roadshows have been successes, winning the BJP many elections. This time, much will depend on the Congress’s stamina to keep things on the boil.