BHOPAL: After a stint of 13 years as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan bid adieu to CM House in Bhopal late on Wednesday night.
Before shifting to his new bungalow in Bhopal, Chouhan was given a tearful farewell by supporters who had come to the CM House from his Assembly constituency Budhni (Sehore).
The emotional farewell brought tears to the eyes of Chouhan’s wife Sadhna Singh, and the ex-CM responded by using the title of Salman Khan-starrer Bollywood movie Tiger Zinda Hai.
“Aage kya hoga is baat ki chinta naa kijiye, kyonki Shivraj Singh Chouhan aapke saath hamesha hai... Tiger abhi zinda hai (Don’t worry about the future. I’m there for all of you. Tiger is alive),” said Chouhan, while addressing people from Budhni at the CM House.
Sources present at the CM House claimed that Chouhan also told his supporters, “Don’t worry, maybe the return to CM House will happen much before five years,” triggering speculation about the longevity and health of the new Congress government headed by Kamal Nath.
Congress ranks in MP dubbed the development as the result of the pain felt by Chouhan on being ousted from power by the people of the state, but BJP leader Dr Hitesh Bajpai said “it was a speech by the ex-CM to boost the morale of his supporters and party workers.”
Early on Thursday morning, a tweet from Chouhan’s twitter handle Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Common Man of Madhya Pradesh, read, “Har ek lambi daud ya phir unchi chhalang se pahle, do kadam peeche hatna padta hai (one has to take two steps back before making a giant leap or embarking on a long run).”
Chouhan, a five-time Lok Sabha member from Vidisha, became the chief minister of the state in November 2005, after which he guided the BJP to two successive wins in Assembly elections, in 2008 and 2013.
But he couldn’t repeat the magic in this year’s Assembly elections, when the Bharatiya Janata Party, which won 109 seats, was outnumbered by the Congress with 114 seats and the support of seven other independent, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party legislators.