Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday told women in attendance at an event in his home district of Sehore that they would never get a brother like him and would miss him when he was not around.
A video of this emotional communication has surfaced, prompting the Opposition to target Mr. Chouhan and calling it a sign of him being voted out in the coming Assembly election.
“Sisters, you will not find a brother like this. When I leave, you will miss me,” Mr. Chouhan said at an event at Ladkul in his Assembly seat Budhni.
Mr. Chouhan has historically received the endorsement of women voters in the State, and even in the run-up to the Assembly polls, he has made efforts to reach out to this core constituency through new women-centric schemes.
The remarks also come at a time when there is speculation about his fate as the Chief Minister even if the Bharatiya Janata Party wins the election.
Mr. Chouhan’s name does not figure in the list of 79 candidates announced by the BJP so far. Though there have been talks of “collective leadership” going into the election, the candidates chosen so far include Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste, as well as Indore strongman Kailash Vijayvargiya, all political heavyweights and claimants to the post of the Chief Minister.
At an event in Khargone last week, Mr. Chouhan said he had no greed for any post and would be happy if his “flesh and bones could come of use to people”.
Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath said Mr. Chouhan would be remembered for his “lies and (hollow) announcements”.
Peeyush Babele, Mr. Nath’s media adviser, posted a clip of Mr. Chouhan’s speech on X and wrote that the Chief Minister had “announced his departure”.
