AAP's electoral debut in Delhi may have some BJP leaders in tizzy, but not Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Someone who drove the party to third consecutive victory in Madhya Pradesh, Chouhan has told party leaders that to blunt the edge of such outfits, party leaders have to venture out of their air conditioned offices and connect with people.
Amidst a buzz about the crowd sourcing approach of Arvind Kejriwal's party, Chouhan said at a party meeting here on Tuesday, “A lot of discussion is being done about the AAP. But I have always worked with the aam aadmi. I have not run the Government sitting in AC chamber but have done it holding panchayats.”
Kejriwal had prepared his manifesto after holding discussion in localities and even conducted a poll to decide whether or not to form a government in Delhi with outside support from the Congress.
Seen as the “soft face” of the party whose popularity went beyond the limits of caste or religion, Chouhan told party leaders that for years he has been interacting with the aam aadmi to decide about Government policies and take feedbacks on their performance.
“I also prepared the election manifesto after holding several panchayats of stakeholder. I held meeting of women, elders, doctors and others groups. They came out with brilliant ideas and it was incorporated in the manifesto,” Chouhan said at the meeting of BJP’s central election campaign committee here.
The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister was blunt in telling the party “only when people realise that they are part of the Government, they will vote for it”. “At no point people felt they were not a part of my Government. This helped me beat the anti-incumbency,” Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.
Chouhan told the party that electoral victory could be clinched only when leaders venture out of AC room and work on the field. “The cumulative effect of connective with the people was that while we rode the tide of a pro-incumbency, Opposition MlAs faced a strong anti-incumbency and were defeated,” Chouhan said.
At the same meeting, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje also shared that recent election results proved that the BJP could get votes from the Scheduled Caste and even Muslims if efforts, both consistent and genuine, were made. All Muslim candidates of the Congress lost election in Rajasthan, with most of them even losing their deposit.