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Dainik Bhaskar 13 December 2018 How Congress missed a golden opportunity in 2018 MP assembly election NK SINGH कांग्रेस अगर २०१३ के मुकाबले अपनी सीटों में लगभग दोगुना इजाफा कर पाई है तो इसपर उसे इठलाने की जरूरत नहीं. भले उसे भाजपा से ५ सीटें ज्यादा हासिल हुई हों, पर वोटिंग परसेंटेज देखें तो कांग्रेस को भाजपा से कम वोट मिले हैं! सही है, पांच साल पहले उसके और भाजपा के बीच आठ परसेंट वोटों का फासला था और उस बड़े अंतर को पाटने में वह कामयाब रही है. पर बहुमत से दो सीट पीछे रह जाना उसे हमेशा सालता रहेगा. इस खंडित जनादेश के लिए कांग्रेस खुद जिम्मेदार है. वह अपने पत्ते अच्छी तरह खेलती तो नतीजे अलग हो सकते थे. मध्य प्रदेश में १५ साल से भाजपा बनाम अन्य का माहौल है. मैदान में ज्यादा खिलाड़ी होने का फायदा भाजपा को मिलता है. एक ज़माने में यही फायदा कांग्रेस को मिलता था. गोंडवाना, बसपा और समाजवादी पार्टी से चुनावी समझौता न करके कांग्रेस ने एक ऐतिहासिक भूल की. इन छोटी पार्टियों को भले तीन सीटें मिली हों पर वे ८.१ परसेंट वोट ले गयीं. भाजपा-विरोधी वोट बाँटने से कांग्रेस को ...

Dainik Bhaskar 9 October 2018 Upper caste votes may prove game changer in M adhya Pradesh NK SINGH विधान सभा चुनाव की विधिवत घोषणा भले ही ६ अक्टूबर को हुई हो, पर मध्यप्रदेश में इसकी बिसात जुलाई में ही बिछ चुकी थी, जब मुख्यमंत्री शिवराज सिंह चौहान ने अपनी जन आशीर्वाद यात्रा शुरु की.  उस दिन से ही भाजपा और कांग्रेस अखाड़े में ताल ठोंक रहे हैं. इन 12 हफ़्तों में प्रदेश की राजनीति ने दो दिलचस्प करवटें ली हैं. छह अक्टूबर को जिस दिन भाजपा अध्यक्ष अमित शाह और कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष राहुल गाँधी दोनों मध्यप्रदेश के चुनावी दौरे कर रहे थे, दूर लखनऊ में सपा अध्यक्ष अखिलेश यादव कांग्रेस से नाता तोड़ने की घोषणा कर रहे थे: “कब तक इंतजार करें, एमपी में हम चौथे नंबर की पार्टी हैं.”  एक सप्ताह पहले ही बसपा सुप्रीमो मायावती कांग्रेस को बाय-बाय कर चुकी थीं. पिछले चुनाव के आंकड़े बताते हैं कि बसपा के साथ आने से कांग्रेस को लगभग ४५ सीटों पर फायदा मिल सकता था.   समझा जाता था कि भाजपा को हराने के लिए कांग्रेस दूसरी पार्टियों को साथ लेकर इलेक्शन लड़ेगी ताकि सरकार-विरोधी वोटो...

NK SINGH I 'm not going to fry pakodas," said Digvijaya Singh when reporters asked him what he intended doing after his six-month Narmada pilgrimage earlier this year.  He is certainly not frying pakodas.  Rising like a phoenix from the ashes, he is on the centre-stage of Madhya Pradesh politics once again. As the Congress returns to power after 15 years, the person who benefited the most from the change in political fortunes was Diggi Raja.  Kamal Nath may have walked away with the chief minister's chair, but it is Singh who is enjoying a sudden surge in power and clout.  In the 28-member Cabinet, some say he has as many as 10 ministers. Others put the number at nine. The newly inducted ministers include his son and nephew.  It is an impressive achievement for someone who had been lying low throughout the election campaign. He was not very visible as many in the Congress party feared that if he straddled centre-stage, the BJP would resume its 'M...

NK SINGH Perched atop Bhopal’s Shamla Hills, the CM House is indeed MP’s power centre. Just across the road, overlooking the picturesque Upper Lake, stands another colonial bungalow that has emerged as the state’s second power centre. Only a few feet of asphalt divide the two high profile neighbours. State Congress president Kamal Nath, the occupant of the other house, has pitched a make-shift tent in its sprawling campus. It is to accommodate the perennial stream of visitors. The campus resembles a mela ground. Those making a beeline to the house include political leaders, not necessarily from the Congress party, business tycoons and journalists. Some government officials are also in touch.  Brisk Efficiency Once you enter Nath’s private office, however, the atmosphere changes. The area is pulsating with efficiency. Visitors are ushered in, business is conducted briskly and before they realise it, the next appointee enters to take their place. Nath, 71, has...

NK SINGH Arjun Singh became the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for the first time in 1980 with the help of Kamal Nath, then 33 and a good friend of Sanjay Gandhi. Shivbhanu Singh Solanki, a tribal leader, had polled more votes than Singh in the elections for leadership of the Congress legislature party. Then something amazing happened. Nath ‘transferred’ his votes to Singh, reducing Solanki’s majority to minority! It was a well-scripted move, approved by Sanjay Gandhi, then heir apparent of Congress party, to help Singh. Nath was doing what he had been asked to do. In a repeat performance 13 years later, Kamal Nath, then a minister of state in Narasimha Rao government, helped Digvijay Singh become the chief minister in 1993. The drama enacted before the CLP election has become a political folklore ---- a classic case of Machiavellian intrigues. With Arjun Singh’s covert blessing, Nath threw his lot with Digvijay Singh at the last moment, flummoxing rival groups of ...

NK SINGH The BJP in Madhya Pradesh is certainly not in a position to rejoice over the party’s victory in Tripura and Nagaland. Its spin doctors are propagating the myth that defeat in Mungaoli and Kolaras assembly by-elections does not matter because the constituencies they lost were traditional Congress strongholds. Facts do not support this narrative. The Congress had won Mungaoli only five times out of the 13 elections held there until now. Similarly, it captured Kolaras only 6 out of 13 times. As recently as 2008 assembly elections, both constituencies had favoured BJP. True, the two seats form part of Congress satrap Jyotiraditya Scindia’s parliamentary constituency. So suffering a defeat there would have been a big loss of face for him. It is also true that Congress barely managed to retain both seats, with a vastly reduced margin. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan patted himself on the back for putting up a good fight: “We lost there in 2013 election even whe...

NK SINGH Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s political career started surprisingly early. According to his official website, he fought for farm workers of his village when he was just nine year old!  The child prodigy learnt the ropes of hardcore politics at the age of 16 as the president of his school union in Bhopal and as an activist of Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ wing of RSS. A year later, the then Congress Government detained him during the Emergency. Shivraj became the youngest person to be arrested under draconian MISA and underwent rite of passage in Bhopal jail, where he spent nine months in the company of senior RSS leaders. It is natural for a son to follow the footsteps of his father. Kartikey Singh Chouhan, the chief minister’s 23-year-old son, has also taken plunge into political arena quite early, even as he pursues his master’s in law at a Pune college. Recently he addressed a political rally of Kirar-Dhakad community in Kol...

Shivraj's son may enter public life   नरेन्द्र कुमार सिंह मध्य प्रदेश के मुख्यमंत्री शिवराज सिंह चौहान ने अपने बचपन में ही राजनीति की ओर कदम बढ़ा दिए थे. उनकी ऑफिसियल वेबसाइट के मुताबिक जब वे महज़ नौ साल के थे तो उन्होंने अपने गांव में खेतिहर मजदूरों को संगठित कर उनके हक़ की लड़ाई लड़ी और उनकी मजदूरी दोगुनी करवा कर ही दम लिया. सोलह साल के होते होते शिवराज राजनीति में पूरी तरह दीक्षित हो गए थे. वे भोपाल में अपने स्कूल की स्टूडेंट यूनियन के प्रेसिडेंट बन चुके थे और साथ ही राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ की छात्र इकाई, विद्यार्थी परिषद्, के नेता बन चुके थे.  एक साल बाद ही इमरजेंसी के दौरान तत्कालीन कांग्रेसी सरकार ने उन्हें गिरफ्तार कर लिया. मीसा के तहत जेल में बंद होने वाले वे सबसे कम उम्र के छात्र थे. उन्होंने पूरे नौ महीने भोपाल सेंट्रल जेल में गुजारे, जहाँ सीनियर भाजपा और संघ के नेताओं के सानिध्य में उन्होंने सार्वजनिक जीवन का ककहरा सीखा. अचरज नहीं कि शिवराज के पुत्र कार्तिकेय सिंह चौहान भी २३ साल की उम्र में ही राजनीति में सक्रीय हो गए हैं. सिंधिया की मांद म...

Madhya Pradesh Signs of life in MP Congress NK SINGH BJP in Madhya Pradesh may do well to take note of two recent developments in Congress that it has successfully stalled from coming back to power for 14 years now. The first is the much publicised show of unity put up by Congress in mounting a gherao of Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha on February 22, 2017. The protest against “misdeeds” of Shivraj Singh Government was feeble, with top leaders meekly walking towards waiting police vehicles to court arrest. But they succeeded in brushing their differences under the carpet and coming on one platform after a gap of almost three years. The significance of the show of unity ---- although it could barely last for a few hours ---- was that it had taken place under direct instructions from Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. Sick of infighting among its top leaders, the party high command finally cracked its whip, bringing Digvijay Singh, Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia on...