The BJP went into Assembly polls in the three big Hindi-speaking States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on the basis of collective leadership, without any projection of a face to the party’s campaign, a look at ticket distribution and campaigning shows, however, that regional satraps like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje and Raman Singh seem to have held their own.
In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP high command, aware of anti-incumbency within the party against Mr. Chouhan fielded seven Lok Sabha members and national general secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya in the Assembly polls. The message was of collective leadership and an open situation with regard to who will be Chief Minister if the BJP manages to win Madhya Pradesh. Chief Minister Mr. Chouhan’s seat was not even announced in the first list of candidates put out by the party. By the end of the campaign however, it was the Chouhan government’s “Laadli Behena” income support scheme for women that the party depended on as its main plank. From October 10 onwards, Mr. Chouhan also criss-crossed the State on his own, addressing more than 160 rallies, in addition to the 21 rallies under the Vikas Parv programme run by the party organisation in the run-up to the polls.
