The newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MlA from Maihar Narayan Tripathi attributed his victory to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his people-friendly policies.
Tripathi was elected to the State Assembly from Maihar Assembly constituency in the recent by-election. This is Tripathi’s third victory from the same Assembly segment, while on earlier occasions he was elected from Samajwadi Party (SP) in 2003 and from Congress in 2013.
Tripathi while talking to The Pioneer here on Thursday said, “I joined BJP unconditionally only on the assurance of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that comprehensive development of the constituency would be done. On hearing this from the Chief Minister I quit Congress and joined BJP only for the development of Maihar.”
Tripathi further said that it is not that he wanted to enjoy the power and for that he joined the BJP. “When Chouhan was looking for a safer seat in 2005 then also I told him that I was ready to resign and offered him to contest from Maihar, at that time I was MlA from SP. Then, he asked me whether I would join BJP, but in reply I had declined. He had asked as what would be the benefit, if I leave the seat for him, I replied that I would not get benefitted but Maihar would be as it would get chance to elect Chief Minister. So it was since then I am looking for the development of Maihar and for that I was even ready to sacrifice my post.”
Tripathi was all praise for the Chief Minister and said that Chouhan is the first leader of the country who is doing politics by tying people into relations. For children he is maternal uncle, while for youth he is brother and for elders a son and his government is also running schemes based on relations. The public beneficiary schemes of Chouhan Government start from the birth of the child and continues till education in which bicycle, uniform, book and meals are taken care. After completion of the education Government helps in providing jobs and if the youth like to start business then also assistance is provided by the Government. At the time of marriage again the Government provides assistance while for the elders the State Government runs pilgrimage scheme. All this put together in one sentence could be said that the Chouhan Government remains with the people from birth to death and it is due to this that this Government returns to power time and again, he added.