Kailash Joshi became the first Janasangh Chief Minister of the state in July 1977. He became the CM against the wishes of the RSS. The RSS lobby mounted such intense pressure on him that he fell sick and could not perform his duties. During his sickness, Deputy Chief Minister VK Sakhlecha functioned as the de facto Chief Minister. Ultimately, Kailash Joshi was made to resign, paving the way for Sakhlecha. The Sakhlecha government was dismissed and the Vidhan Sabha was dissolved after Mrs. Indira Gandhi returned to power in 1980.

In 1990, BJP captured power on its own. The party decided to install Sunderlal Patwa as the Chief Minister. His government was dismissed and the Vidhan Sabha was dissolved in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition. In 2003, after a gap of ten years, the BJP again came to power, ending the decade-long rule of Digvijay Singh. Digvijay's tenure as the Chief Minister was the longest in the history of the State, which was carved out in 1956 following the implementation of the recommendations of the state re-organisation commission.

The BJP fought the 2003 elections under the leadership of Uma Bharati. She mounted a massive propaganda against Digvijay Singh for his failure on the 'Bijli-Sadak-Paani' (Power, roads, water) front. There is no doubt that the people were angry with the Congress government headed by Digvijay Singh because of the severe shortage of electricity and bad roads. Uma Bharati's powerful propaganda did the rest and the Congress lost heavily. But Uma's tenure was very short-lived. She became the victim of the conspiracy hatched against her by the deeply entrenched leaders of the party. She was replaced by Babulal Gaur, who began his tenure with a lot of goodwill. But he too became the victim of conspiracy and had to demit office. Finally, on November 29, 2005, Shivraj Singh Chauhan was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the state. He enjoyed the confidence not only of the party but also of the RSS. In 2008, he faced the electorate and came out with flying colours. Now, he has to face another election in November 2013, exactly a year from now.

The ruling BJP has already started preparing for the polls. Besides launching several pro-people schemes, Chauhan has also taken a series of steps for the growth of industry and infrastructure. As roads and electricity, which were instrumental in Congress' defeat in 2003, continue to be problem areas, Chauhan is understandably worried.

Several major roads in the state are in need of extensive repairs. Recently, the issue of bad roads came into focus when cine actress and BJP MP Hema Mailini had a first-hand experience of the pathetic state of roads. She told the media that it took her more than 3 hours to cover a distance of 70 km from Gwalior to Datia.

The Congress took full advantage of Hema's comment to mount criticism of the state government on the issue of roads. The BJP and the Chief Minister are now trying to divert the people's anger to the Central government. While accepting that the condition of roads in the state was indeed very poor, the government is telling the people that most of the roads which were in a bad shape were national highways--the responsibility of maintaining which rests with the Union government. The government has decided to put-up hoardings at all national highways declaring that 'This road belongs to the Union government'. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has decided to meet the Prime Minister along with all his cabinet colleagues to draw his attention to the bad condition of national highways.

However, the BJP is not in a position to explain its failure on the power front. In 2003 itself, the BJP had promised 24-hour uninterrupted power supply but even after the passage of 9 years, there is no significant improvement in the supply of electricity. Rural areas continue to be the worst hit. They are not getting power even for irrigation purposes. The BJP will have to show positive results on the fronts of power and electricity, if it wants to remain in power after the 2013 polls.

Besides, the government and the BJP are also facing some problems in the party organisation. This time, instead of holding elections, it has decided to nominate office-bearers through consensus. A section of the party leadership is opposed to the adoption of the consensus method saying that it was not democratic. Among others, the opposition to this method has been voiced by Raghunandan Sharma, a senior party leader and a Member of Parliament.

The Congress, which happens to be the chief opposition party, is also facing problems. The Congress appears to be a house divided against itself. In order to iron out the internal differences, recently, many important leaders of the party met at Delhi. After the meeting, a select group of leaders was taken to meet Sonia Gandhi. The way the meeting with Sonia Gandhi was arranged drew loud protests from some leaders including Olympian Hockey player and former MP Aslam Sher Khan, who was dropped from the delegation that met Sonia Gandhi. He has warned that if the Congress continued to ignore the Muslim voters, it should be ready to face the consequences. AICC general secretary and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has described Aslam's outburst as “Nautanki.” This show at the Delhi conclave has hardly served to bring about even a semblance of unity among the top Congress leaders. (IPA Service)