Last Updated: October 04, 2023, 11:18 IST
The Congress has been taking potshots at CM Shivraj Chouhan, asking whether these are his words of farewell after being ignored by his party in the elections. (PTI)
BJP sources say it cannot be said for sure that Chouhan will not be put up as a candidate in the elections. However, the party is clear that it is going into the MP polls with no declared chief ministerial face and is fighting elections in the name of PM Modi and the lotus symbol
In his home constituency Budhni on Tuesday, Chouhan asked people if he should contest the upcoming elections.
“Main Chunav Ladun ki Nahin, Yahan se Ladun ki Nahin (Should I fight the elections or not? Should I fight here from not?),” the chief minister asked the crowd in Budhni, which responded that he must fight. Chouhan then folded his hands, acknowledging the crowd.
This has raised more speculations in Madhya Pradesh after the chief minister had told people at another rally in Sehore earlier this week that “Mere jaisa bhaiyya nahi milega…Mein Chala Jaunga Toh Bahut Yaad Aaunga (You won’t find a brother like me, you will miss me when I go away).”
At a public meeting in Khargone last week, Chouhan said he was not hungry for any post. “I have no greed for any post. I only run this government so that I am of use to the women and children of the state. I am working to help everyone,” he said.
Sources in the BJP say it cannot be said for sure that Chouhan will not be put up as a candidate in the elections. “The Budhni seat’s candidate has not been announced yet,” a source in BJP said about Chouhan’s sitting seat since 2006.
Sources also say that the first three lists declared so far consisting of 79 seats in Madhya Pradesh are mostly seats that either the BJP has lost in earlier elections or sees as difficult.
However, the BJP is clear that it is going into the Madhya Pradesh elections with no declared chief ministerial face and is fighting the elections in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the lotus symbol.
The Congress, meanwhile, has been taking potshots at the chief minister, asking whether these are his words of farewell after being ignored by his party in the elections.
Former chief minister and Congress leader Kamal Nath, taking a dig at Chouhan, posted on X: “The irony of the chief minister of MP is that now he has started doing talk of his exit from the stage. This is a strange time in BJP politics, when they are organizing their farewell ceremony, they are reading their farewell speech, but a special paradox is that at this time of farewell, there are no tears in the eyes of the public but of the BJP government. There is a smile on the faces of the public from the joy of knowing and the Congress government coming.”
