Ruling out anti-incumbency sentiment in Madhya Pradesh, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here on Thursday claimed that the performance of its Government would ensure its victory in the Assembly elections scheduled for 2018.
BJP Madhya Pradesh president and MP Nandkumar Singh Chouhan said here, "We are confident of forming the Government in the State for a fourth consecutive term under the leadership of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Our Government has performed well." Chouhan was speaking to media persons after the conclusion of a four-day training session for party workers.
Talking about Aam Aadmi Party's December 20 rally in Bhopal, Chouhan termed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a 'paper tiger'. "There is no party which can put up a challenge before BJP in the next election," he said.
Asked about the Income Tax Department's raids at the premises of BJP leader Sushil Vaswani in Bhopal, Chouhan said it was not possible that everybody in the party would be clean when it has millions of members. "But the action shows that none would be spared under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he added.
To the question if the Union Ministers from the State Uma Bharti and Anil Dave were being kept away from the Chief Minister's ongoing 'Narmada Sewa Yatra,' the BJP State president said programmes of these two Union Ministers from the State would be organized during the five-month-long yatra.
On being asked whether the training was related to the Assembly elections, Chouhan denied that the training was connected to elections, but in the same breath said, "In politics, elections are the most important event. If the training makes our army (workers) active and updated, we will get political advantage in elections."
He was clear about reiterating, "We will contest 2018 Assembly polls under the leadership of Shivraj Singh Chouhan and 2019 lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Narendra Modi."