Congress Rajya Sabha member of Parliament, and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijaya Singh on Saturday took potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said that CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan was not dependent on a ticket from his party.
Mr. Singh’s remarks come at a time when Mr. Chouhan has been making emotional pitches in his speeches across the State asking the public whether he should contest elections or not. Speculations in the M.P. are also strife about the BJP’s Central leadership attempting to sideline the 18-year Chief Minister and not retaining him even if the party returns to power in the State.
Speaking to the media in Bhopal, Mr. Singh said, “This means that he is not dependent on a BJP ticket. He wants to directly contest the elections and wants to become the CM. He is not dependent on BJP making him the CM.”
The Congress Working Committee member also said that Mr. Chouhan was giving a hint to the BJP high-command.
“Modi ji wanted to show red eyes to China. It didn’t work there but now Shivraj ji is definitely showing red eyes [to him],” Mr. Singh said.
At a public rally in Dindori district on Friday, Mr. Chouhan had asked the crowd if he should become the CM again.
“Tell me honestly, how am I running the government? Is it good or bad? Should Mama [maternal uncle in Hindi, a popular nickname for Mr. Chouhan] become the Chief Minister or not? Should Modi ji become Prime Minister or not? Should the BJP again form the government or not?,” he asked the crowd, which chanted in affirmative to each question.
While inaugurating the second phase of Shri Mahakal Mahalok temple corridor in Ujjain the same day, he had asked the spiritual leaders to guide him as the path of politics is slippery.
“There is fear of slipping at every step. Sometimes we slip ourselves and at times others come [to push us],” he told saints.
Earlier at an event in his own Assembly constituency Budhni last week, he had told women that they would never get a brother like him and would miss him when he left.
The Congress has taken the CM’s statements to claim that he was not going to come back.
Party national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, at a rally in Dhar district’s Mohankheda on Thursday, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was now shying away from naming Mr. Chouhan in his campaign speeches.
“Nowadays, he shies away from taking his [Mr. Chouhan’s] name. Shivraj is not going to be your CM anymore,” she said.
State Congress chief Kamal Nath also took a dig at the BJP, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Look at the irony of the M.P. CM that he himself has started talking about his departure. This is a strange phase of BJP politics, when he himself is organising his farewell ceremony, he himself is reading his farewell speech, but a special paradox is that at the time of farewell, there are no tears in the eyes of the public. There are smiles on the faces of the people, happy with the departure of the BJP government and arrival of the Congress government.”
