Shivraj bridges gap with Modi; BJP’s state meet turns into a mutual admiration club

Bhopal: Coming less than a week after the National Executive conference at Bangaluru, the two-day executive committee meeting of the BJP’s Madhya Pradesh unit at Bhopal aroused media curiosity over its agenda.

State executive meetings are usually expected to discuss matters pertaining to the state. The two-day show, however, ended up as a conference of mutual admirers’ club where supporters of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi poured out platitudes for each other. The party insiders say it was national president Amit Shah’s idea.

The forgotten BJP poll mantra of Om NaMo Shivaye was back in circulation. If the Modi government, beleaguered over the land acquisition bill, needs support at the grassroots level, Chouhan needs the Centre’s backing while he faces charges in the professional examination board scam.

A booklet titled Sabka Budget (budget of all) was presented to all participants in the meeting. If the cover showed Narendra Modi and Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar the inner pages highlighted achievements of Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, considered one of the architects of BJP’s return to power in Madhya Pradesh in 2003 and a facilitator in subsequent ascent of Chouhan as chief minister 2005, showered compliments on the latter. Chouhan, weighed down by Congress over recruitment scam, got a strong backing from Jaitley for “unblemished" credibility.

“In Chouhan we have got a leader whose biggest quality is his credibility. If a leader has such a high credibility it usually perturbs opposition. This is why the Congress is levelling false and baseless allegations against Chouhan,” said Jaitley who stayed away from MP affairs for some time after it became clear that Narendra Modi would be the prime ministerial candidate against the wishes of party patriarch LK Advani. Chouhan who was in the Advani camp has also tried to make up with the Modi camp especially after the Bangalore session where the BJP all but jettisoned Advani.

“It is under Chouhan that Madhya Pradesh has gone on to be a revenue surplus state. And besides achieving 20 percent growth in agriculture and making a large contribution to the nation’s food bowl Chouhan has improved the quality of life in the state. To him should go the credit for removing the BIMARU tag,” said Jaitley. He added that the Land acquisition bill passed during the UPA regime was a conspiracy against the farmers. No one cared to ask why BJP supported that bill. Jaitley cautioned the party members against those within the party who could damage the images of the chief minister and the prime minister.

State unit president, Nandkumar Singh Chauhan, reciprocated by praising the historic changes effected by Modi government in past one year. His views were seconded by his predecessor Narendra Singh Tomar the Rajya Sabha member from the state and minister Prakash Javdekar. The exercise was clearly to build the prime minister’s pro-farmer image in the minds of the ground-level workers after the opposition blitz about his pro-corporates image. The cleanliness drive of the prime minister also dominated the members’ speeches. Chouhan’s praise was a logical quid pro quo.

At the business level, however, there was caution. While trying to garner farmers’ support the representatives of the central leadership guarded against conceding the unrealistic demands of the state leaders for compensation to the farmers. There is vast difference between the assessment of losses made by the central government’s teams and that made by the state machinery. The farmers are agitated over the poor quality wheat being rejected by collection centres while the chief minister has been assuring that quality bars will be lowered during the purchase.

The cover up was over the boastful claims about the membership drive.

While the party declared itself as the largest political party in the world beating Communist Party of China at Bangaluru session the party’s Madhya Pradesh unit failed to reach its membership target.

Nandkumar Singh Chouhan claimed the party has crossed 10 million mark in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The combined membership of the party at I,05,996 members falls short of Amit Shah’s expectations by 100 per cent. Shah had set the target of two crore members from the states where the party has been in power for 11 years.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan declared that BJP workers from MP would better the target and set his own goal at 2.25 crore to be registered by March 31. The RSS point person in the state organisation Arvind Menon backed Nandkumar Singh Chauhan in extending the membership drive in Madhya Pradesh for another month.