Bhopal: What CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan could not achieve in 12 years, BJP chief Amit Shah managed just by visiting the city once. The CM has been exhorting the ministers to devote time for meeting the BJP workers and leaders for long, but with little effect. During his recent visit to the capital, Amit Shah cracked the whip on the ministers. He sternly directed them to be available at mantralaya or their residence on Mondays and Tuesdays for meeting party office-bearers and workers. And they followed it to a T. Most reached mantralaya early in the day. They also met BJP MLAs and leaders at their residences.
The chief minister has been urging the ministers for the past of couple of years to stay put in mantralaya on Mondays and Tuesdays and dispose of official work. As the ministers openly flouted his directives, he started holding cabinet meetings on Tuesdays to ensure that the ministers would be present at mantralaya at least on that day.
The ministers began making beeline for mantralaya since early in the morning. Gaurishankar Shejwar, Rajendra Shukla, Jayant Mallaiya, Gopal Bhargava, Gaurishankar Bisen, Antar Singh Arya, Maya Singh, Rustam Singh, Jaibhan Singh Pavaiyya, Umashankar Gupta, Archana Chitnis, Vishwas Sarang and Paras Jain spend the entire day at mantralaya. Yashodhararaje Scindia, Bhupendra Singh, Rampal Singh, Deepak Joshi and Surendra Patwa did not come to the Mantralaya but they were available for the workers at their residences.
Forest minister Gaurishankar Shejwar said he had always been meeting the party workers. “I meet them at my residence as well as mantralaya. I am not doing anything new,” he said. The minister said he also visited mantrayala regularly and disposed of official work.
Panchayats and rural development minister Gopal Bhargava said he was always accessible to the people. He said unless there were other pressing engagements he disposed of files at mantralaya on Mondays and Tuesdays.
