BJP central leadership considers civic poll verdict reflection enough
New Delhi : Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has just strengthened his slightly shaky position in the party’s political hierarchy after the clean sweep in the civic body polls the results for which were declared on Sunday. Since the polling was conducted in the midst of the raging Vyapam storm, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to slam the Congress now.
The party is of the view that with the civic body polls covering all the regional divisions of the large state, the victory should be taken as a reflection of the people’s support without any ifs or buts. A top central BJP leader, involved with MP affairs, put it like this, ”Shivraj Singh Chouhan has emerged stronger than ever before. This is not to say that we do not take the investigation of the central agency seriously. But it is like a candidate appearing in an exam. You can say that while the result of one paper is still pending, he has passed the other paper with flying colours. We are quite positive that the other paper (CBI) would also be ion the same lines.” Since the Congress not only scored a zero in the ten corporations but lost six of their sitting ones, Chouhan’s detractors are also likely to lie low for some time, hinted a senior leader. BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said ”the negative campaign by the Congress enraged the people of Madhya Pradesh who showered bumper votes on the BJP. In a democracy, the people are above any court of law and they have already given a clean chit to Chouhan with this verdict”.
Referring to the Vyapam scam, BJP vice president and in-charge of MP affairs, Vinay Saharsbuddhe said ”we never claimed there is nothing wrong. But the CM was trying to undo the wrong. A thorough enquiry was on. Yet unnecessary inferences were drawn and a deliberate campaign to tarnish the image of a progressive state. Saharsbuddhe was referring to Chouhan’s strategy of portraying the entire Vyapam campaign as an attack on the pride of the MP people.
Smita Mishra
