But as the year drew to a close, bad news came for the BJP. After party's defeat in Bihar, party suffered serious setback when it lost the Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha seat in by-polls. Then, it lost five of the eight local bodies, that went to polls in December, to the Congress.

Then two victories not only booted the morale of the Congress but the Congressmen regarded it as the beginning of the party's revival.

Despite these two setbacks, in the year 2015, Shivraj Singh became the longest-serving chief minister of the state, breaking the record of Digvijaya Singh

This achievement notwithstanding, 2015 was the year of serious troubles for Chauhan. Standing crops of Soyabean – the key Kharif crop of the State – were ruined by a lethal combination of a disease called Yellow Mosaic Virus, deficient rains and unusually high temperatures. Lakhs of farmers suffered huge losses and dozens committed suicide. To make matters worse, the coffers of the government were empty, when it needed at least Rs 3,500 crore to provide relief to the peasants. The central government seemed to be hesitant to come to the rescue of the state. The Panchayat office-bearers and the school 'Adhyapaks' were up in arms, demanding more powers and more money. Delay in expansion of the council of Ministers and in appointment of chairpersons of state-owned corporations, boards, authorities and commissions fuelled discontent within the ruling party. The Adhyapaks were later mollified by the government by announcing that they would be granted sixth pay commission salaries.

The monsoon played truant in the State. In only nine of the 50 districts, the rainfall was normal or above normal. In the rest, it fell short of the normal by 46 per cent (Chhattapur) to 3 per cent (Jhabua), with the deficit for the state as a whole as being 19 per cent.

As the figures came in, the government declared 141 tehsils, spread over 23 districts as drought-affected. A slew of measures including conversion of short-term loans into medium-term ones, stoppage of loan recovery and 10 per cent subsidy on loans for fertilisers and seeds were announced.

Then came the news that Soyabean crops on almost 50 lakh hectares of land in the state had been ruined. The scale of the disaster can be gauged by the fact that Soyabean was sowed on around 58 lakh hectares this year.

At the beginning of 2015, Chauhan was the lord of all he surveyed. After the spectacular victory in the urban body elections, he had emerged as the real hero of the ruling BJP. With the results of the second round of polls, declared on February 4, the BJP had come to control all the 14 municipal corporations in the state. The party retained Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur and also won Chhindwara, where Mayoral elections were held for the first time.

BJP's victory in Chhindwara was significant as it happened to be the citadel of Kamalnath, a powerful Congress satrap.

The state BJP leaders gave entire credit for landslide victory to Shivraj Singh Chauhan.

In an unprecedented step, the Chief Minister directed IAS, IPS and IFS officers to fan out to the rural areas of the state, meet farmers, assess the ground situation vis-a-vis crop loss and report back to him. This year would be remembered for non-functioning of the state Assembly. Barring the Winter Session, all other sessions of the House were cut short due to mayhem and chaos. The monsoon session, which commenced on July 20, was to have ten sittings and last till July 31. However, it was adjourned sine die only after three sittings on July 22.

The session was marked by chaotic scenes. Legislators of the BJP and the Congress almost came to blows amidst charges and counter-charges on the Vyapam scam. Demanding resignation of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Congress MLAs said they wouldn’t allow the House’s business until he quits. Parliamentary affairs minister Narottam Mishra brought a censure motion against the Opposition, which was passed with voice vote.

A number of important bills including the draconian Prevention of Vexatious Litigation Bill and the supplementary budget of Rs. 8,591 crore were passed by the House within minutes.

Earlier, the unseemly spectacle that played out in the House during its truncated budget session (Feb 16-25, 2015) and subsequently in and after the day-long one (March 23) had brought credit neither to the opposition nor the treasury benches.

In 2015, the real business of the legislature i.e. to debate and discuss the issues touching the life of the common man, became the casualty of mayhem. The annual budget was passed without anyone being the wiser as to the provisions thereof.

The fag and of the year 2015 brought cheers for the Vyapam accused Laxmikant Sharma, The former minister was released on bail after languishing in prison for 18 months. Besides Sharma, other accused also got bail. Meanwhile CBI has been criticised for the slow manner in which it is handling the case.

Thus the year has ended with minor setbacks of the BJP and Chauhan and hope of revival for the Congress. (IPA Service)