Chitrakoot results send danger signals to BJP in MP

Signals from Chitrakoot

NK SINGH

The writing on the wall in Chitrakoot by election was clear the day BJP’s star campaigner Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited a village in the constituency to spend a night in the house of a tribal. It was the ruling party’s attempt to woe tribal votes. The CM had just returned from US, where he was surprised to discover that the roads in the most powerful nation in the world were inferior to those in MP. Apparently Chouhan was in high spirits as he hit the campaign trail. As a politician, he was at his aggressive best. As we know Chouhan is in election mode 24/7. He enters every election, howsoever small and whatsoever insignificant, with killer instinct.

But that night in that village of Chitrakoot, he faced stark realities of his own jumlas ---- and also inefficiency of his administration. The house of the Sarpanch where he was supposed to spend night did not have a toilet. The second house selected also lacked a toilet. An embarrassed administration erected a brand new toilet for the VIP over night, covering it with plywood. New beds, furniture, furnishings and supplies were rushed to the tribal “hut” for the night stay. A press release was duly issued the next day informing the grateful constituents that their chief minister had spent a night at a tribal home and shared their frugal meal.

As is the well-established custom now ---- remember Jyotiraditya Scindia spending a night in a tribal home during Shahdol by election ---- everything vanished soon after CM left the village. A toilet seat sans its plywood walls was left behind, probably to remind the village of its ODF tag. That toilet seat explains why Congress retained Chitrakoot vidhan sabha seat with such convincing and increased margin. After all, BJP had come to power on the issues of development.

Nothing seems to be going right for BJP since that fateful day last summer when police opened fire on farmers agitating for better prices for their products. That summer of discontent was a watershed in MP politics. Things started spiralling downwards thereafter in the State that has been ruled by BJP for three consecutive terms. The farmers’ issue has refused to die down.

Even as farmers continue to remain unhappy with farm prices, all attempts by Government to provide them relief boomeranged. Government attempt to help distress sell by onion growers resulted in an unprecedented burden on State exchequer. Though it could bail out farmers by purchasing onions at hefty prices, it had to throw out most of the stuff which rotted in its godowns. The leftover was purchased by traders at prices ranging between 25 paise and two rupees. A few months later now the same onions is selling for Rs 40 a kg! The sufferers are the consumers and the beneficiaries are the traders.

Government’s ambitious bhavantar plan to bridge the gap between market prices and support price came a cropper with traders farming cartels and artificially lowering foodgrains prices overnight. With Government failing to control the profiteers, the farmers are in tears once again. And again, the beneficiaries are the grain merchants, the traditional supporters of BJP. Of course, most of their profits are now being funded by the state exchequer.

That BJP is losing most by-elections, except probably Shahdol, is quite significant. Even more ominous for BJP are the recent civic elections where it lost heavily in its traditional strongholds. Instead of learning from these defeats and acknowledging that they needed to improve governance, BJP leaders continued with their chest thumping, brushing aside all criticism. Now the paytime has arrived.

Even more significantly, Shivraj charisma seems to be failing. Even BJP leaders, including some of his loyalists, have now started whispering in private about people becoming “tired of seeing the same face for a long time.” In fact, in Chitrakoot, Chouhan totally failed to create any kind of impact. The party lost even in those areas where he campaigned vigorously or resorted to gimmicks like “selling tea” or spending night at tribal home. However, his supporters say that without him the results could have been worse.

Even now there is time for BJP Government to come out of its denial mode and improve administration. People are fed up with leaders who promise the moon, make tall claims and then fail to deliver.

Powers That Be, my column in DB Post of 13 Nov 2017

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