Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is currently heading the BJP Government in Madhya Pradesh in his second back-to-back term in office, may have been instrumental in its emergence as the “fastest growing state” in the country.
However, the dynamic Chouhan looks up to none other than his Gujarat counterpart and now one of the pre-eminent leaders of the party, Narendra Modi for a template to get re-elected in the upcoming Assembly elections there.
Sources say the 54-year-old, an old RSS hand, who has projected himself as a “vikas purush”, is readying a vision document, which will be unveiled on the eve of the Assembly polls likely to take place in November, that will combine his vision as a moderniser that he aspires to be, with his appeal to the traditional RSS constituency.
Presently, crisscrossing the state and hardselling the state government’s initiatives, Chouhan like Modi has taken to twitter and facebook to connect with the tech-savvy generation.
As he works on his re-election template, it is clear that Chouhan, like Modi in Gujarat, will be the lone star campaigner for the BJP in the state.
While the party’s national leaders will be invited to campaign in MP, Chouhan is clear that he alone would be the right person to sell the message of development and good governance to the state’s denizens.
As with Modi, Chouhan has already devised a plan to appear in 3D avatar -- he will be seen simultaneously at 250 places, spread over 230 constituencies across the state -- in the run-up to the state elections.
He will thus be also establishing a world record. Taking a leaf out of Modi’s developmental records, Chouhan has identified ‘power’ and ‘water’ as two thrust areas to make a difference to the people’s lives.
Under the ‘Atal Jyoti Abhiyaan’, the BJP Government is hopeful of ensuring 24x7 power supply for the entire state by May.
Already, six districts have already achieved the target under Chouhan’s leadership. And just like Modi, the MP Chief Minister regards the power sector reforms in the state as a huge achievement.
Also, by taking a leaf out of the inter-linking of rivers in Gujarat, Chouhan has attached utmost importance to the inter-linking of the Narmada-Kshipra, which would benefit 70 cities and 3,000 villages in the Malwa region.
Besides rapid industrialisation, Modi attached a lot of importance to the farm sector by holding regular ‘Krishi Melas’ across Gujarat.
However, in this sector Madhya Pradesh has gone one-up on Gujarat, with the state logging 19 per cent growth and Chouhan has promised record per hectare compensation to the farmers hit by natural calamities like the hailstorms.