The state BJP President Mr. Prabhat Jha told IPA that he expects at least one lakh party workers to congregate at Bhopal to celebrate, what he calls, a “momentous occasion”, in the history of the BJP.

Since MP came into being in 1956, the BJP and its earlier avatar, the “Janasangh”, have been in power in the state five times but never could any chief minister of the party complete five years in office. The Janasangh came into power in MP for the first time in 1967, when the opposition parties toppled the Congress government with the help of 36 defector Congress MLAs. This government, known as SVD (Samyukta Vidhayak dal) government, collapsed within two years.

Then, in 1977, the Janata party—whose main constituent in the state was the Janasangh—came to power in the state riding on the Post-emergency anti-Congress wave. The Socialists were the junior partner in the government and the office of the Chief Minister went to the Janasangh. Kailash Joshi became the CM but was replaced by VK Sakhlecha within six months. In 1980, Congress bounced back to power at the Centre and MP was placed under President’s rule. In the assembly elections that followed, the Congress re-captured power in the state.

The BJP’s next stint at power came in 1990, when it won a majority in the assembly on its own. Sunderlal Patwa became the CM but he too could not complete his term and his government was dismissed in the wake of horrendous post-Babri masjid riots in the state.

This was followed by Digvijay Singh’s decade-long rule in the state. In 2003, BJP again came to power and Uma Bharati became the Chief Minister. But she had to quit within six months and was replaced by Babulal Gaur. Soon, however, Gaur too was given marching orders and on November 29, 2005, Shivraj Singh Chauhan was sworn in as the Chief Minister.

Under his leadership, the party won the 2008 assembly elections and he was re-elected the Chief Minister. He is thus, completing five years in office on the coming November 29. And this justifiably makes it an occasion for celebration for the BJP.

While the party’s top leadership is quite jubilant, there are voices of dissent too. The dissenters are questioning the decision to felicitate only the Chief Minister. They want to know why senior Ministers who too have completed five years in office are not being feted. The disaffection came to the surface when some of them kept away from a team of Ministers, which visited the venue of the proposed celebratory function to oversee the preparations. The party chief Prabhat Jha had asked all the Ministers to visit the venue in a group. Among those who kept away was Babulal Gaur. Mr. Gaur, a former Chief Minister and the senior-most member of the Cabinet feels that he is not being given the importance due to him. His grievance is that the Chief Minister never let go of any opportunity to isolate and humiliate him.

The party chief and the spokesperson for the cabinet Narottam Mishra had no satisfactory explanation as to the absence of some Ministers during the visit to the function venue. When asked whether Ministers too would be felicitated, they said that no decision had been taken in this regard. However, they hastened to add that the felicitation of the Chief Minister was, in fact, the felicitation of all party workers and was aimed at sending out a message to the people-at large that the BJP too can provide a stable government to the State.

The proposed celebration is also being criticised by the opposition parties. In separate statements, the Congress, the CPI and CPM have described it as a “criminal wastage” of public money to project the image of an individual. The opposition parties say that the common BJP workers were feeling neglected and dejected and that the function was, basically, aimed at assuaging their feelings. “But why do it at the cost of the public exchequer?” asks Mr. Shailendra Shaili, CPI state secretary.

A section of the media is also raising certain pertinent questions. It points out that all is not well with MP. According to an answer given in the assembly, as many as 3000 persons committed suicide in the state over the last five years. Thousands of children had died of malnutrition. MP has also earned the reputation of being a hotbed of corruption. Allegations of corruption by Ministers have even been made in the intra-party fora of the BJP. The BJP general secretary incharge for MP Mr. Ananth Kumar had publicly asked the Chief Minister to drop “tainted ministers”. But the Chief Minister did not sack a single Minister. It was not that he did not want to. It was because he could not gather the courage to do so. The Chief Minister is perceived as weak leader, whose instructions are openly flouted by the Ministers. Chauhan is also presiding over a corrupt bureaucracy. An IAS couple has been accused of amassing wealth to the tune of Rs. 300 crores.

Whatever his critics may say, it is a fact that Chauhan has been able to provide a stable government to the state and till date he enjoys full confidence of the central leadership of the BJP. More importantly, he also enjoys full backing of the RSS. (IPA Service)