BJP general secretary, Kailash Vijayvargiya has stated that the newly formed Congress government in Madhya Pradesh is running at the “mercy” of his party and a mere “sneeze” of the BJP’s central leadership can bring it to power in the state. Kailash Vijayvargiya claimed that the BJP can come back to power in the state of Madhya Pradesh if its top leadership wants the same. The BJP had been in power for 15 years, before being ousted last year.
Kailash Vijayvargiya was speaking at a programme on Wednesday evening when he said, “What kind of government (headed by Kamal Nath) is this? This government is being run because of our mercy, the day boss will indicate then…” The senior BJP leader made it clear that due to the “delusion” created by the Congress, the votes got scattered in the assembly elections “but, we need not get disappointed.” He also said, “The state has gone away from our hands, no issue, the state can come back to us any time. The day, a sneeze comes to Delhi people (a reference to central leadership), our government will be formed in the state.”
Congress has reacted sharply to his comments and the state Congress spokesperson Neelabh Shukla said, “It is clear from Vijayvargiya’s statements that the BJP is trying to buy MLAs to topple the Kamal Nath government. The BJP is openly insulting the public mandate.” However, the grand old party must try to assess the situation. The performance of the newly formed Congress government in Madhya Pradesh has been far from satisfactory, in fact, it has been outright horrible. It is, therefore, very much possible that a feeling of dissatisfaction or disenchantment might have taken over some of the Congress legislators in Madhya Pradesh. This could very well mean that the Congress government in the state may be in danger and the as Kailash Vijayvargiya said, BJP could come back to power if some of the Congress MLAs switched sides on account of the incumbent government’s pathetic performance.
It must also be kept in mind that unlike what many of the news traders suggested, the BJP has not been written off by the people of Madhya Pradesh. In fact, the BJP had a higher vote share than the Congress in the state. Unluckily for the BJP, its higher vote share could not convert itself into a higher share of seats in the Assembly. However, the BJP has not exactly become unpopular in the state. And therefore, disenchantment among the Congress MLAs can directly benefit the BJP.
The newly formed Congress government in Madhya Pradesh has taken a slew of poor decisions and misgovernance seems to have become the order of the day in a state which had been administered efficiently for 15 years when the BJP was in power. Newly-appointed Madhya Pradesh Law and Legislative Affairs Minister PC Sharma said that a proposal is in the offing to withdraw registered cases against Congress workers and leaders. Though, the Law Minister claimed that cases registered over participation in agitations and protests will be revoked but the proposal appears a flagrant violation of the idea of justice and is blatant exploitation of political power. The Congress government had also come under heavy fire for deciding to ban the recitation of the national song, Vande Mataram in the secretariat. The tradition was started by the previous BJP government led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan. However, the Congress government later took a U-turn on this issue and announced that Vande Mataram would be sung on the first working day of every month in the secretariat. As per the announcement, it will be done with the participation of police band and conclude with the national anthem. Apart from this, the urea crisis in the state was enough to give a glimpse of what the new government has to offer.
Given that Congress has unleashed an era of misgovernance and poor decision making in Madhya Pradesh, discontentment brewing in the state against the Congress becomes very natural. The BJP, therefore, does have a chance of coming back to power in face of palpable sentiment against the Congress.