Yet another year has been added to the Shivraj Singh Chouhan Government in Madhya Pradesh. With this, he has created another history by completing 12 years in office.
The big question doing the rounds in Bhopal is whether Chouhan would extend lease of power for another term in next year's state assembly polls. The opposition Congress is far from ready to corner him. In fact, there is a three way tussle going on for the chief ministerial face of the Congress among Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kamal Nath and MPCC chief Arun Yadav.
In the past 12 years, Chouhan has broken several jinxes like the BJP government never completed two terms and no chief minister had a third term. Controversies such as Vyapam have failed to make a dent to Chouhan. Even the court has found the allegations of Congress leaders as baseless.
In these 12 years, Chouhan has gained unmatched popularity and barring a handful of by-elections, the BJP emerged victorious in most of them.
Having emerged as unbeatable, nobody from the Congress could face him. There have been talks time and again that the high command may project Jyotiraditya Scindia or Kamal Nath as party president in Madhya Pradesh or chief ministerial candidate in the upcoming assembly polls, but the decision is still
pending.
Political observers feel that the charismatic personality of Chouhan would manage yet another victory in the assembly elections in the State. If Chouhan wins the ensuing assembly elections, he would become one of those few chief ministers having become chief minister fourth term.
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The Narmada yatra of former chief minister and Congress leader Digvijay Singh did bring some puzzles to Chouhan, as almost all the regional satraps from Madhya Pradesh are joining the yatra of Diggy Raja at several points. This yatra is also giving exposure to the last 'Namami Devi Narmade' yatra of Chouhan.
Notably, the strongest point in favour of Shivraj Singh Chouhan is that he never loses connection with people. At present, he continues to visit several parts of the State as a part of Vikas Yatra. Besides, he has declared that he would launch land Rights Campaign in the State from January 26, 2018. land rights will be given to all the eligible landless persons for dwelling during the campaign. He said pucca houses will be provided to the eligible houseless families of the state by 2022.