MP assembly election 2103: 2003 biggies sidelined as Chouhan-Scindia take centre stage in Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Sivraj Sing Chouhan, Sindia, BJP Vs congress, BJP in MP, MP election 2013.
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- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:50
MP assembly election 2103: 2003 biggies sidelined as Chouhan-Scindia take centre stage in Madhya Pradesh.
BHOPAL: AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh who led the Congress into assembly polls 2003 after a decade's stint as chief minister described himself as the 'setting sun' at Rahul Gandhi's election campaign rally in Gwalior on Thursday. With no place in the state election campaign committee and sitting in the second row behind AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Digvijaya was not keen on delivering a speech.
He refused to address the gathering even when Union minister of state Jyotiraditya Scindiarequested him to. But he finally conceded after Rahul Gandhi insisted that he speak a few words to the large gathering, and walked over to the podium.
Dubte suraj ko kaun naman karta hai (who prays to the setting sun),'' he quipped. Then looking at the young Jyotiraditya Scindia who has been appointed the party's election campaign committee chairman, Digvijaya added: Isi liye mein ugte suraj ko naman karta hoon (that is why I pray to the rising sun)''.
The words were fraught with pain as Digvijaya Singh admitted that the "old order changeth, yielding place to new". In 2003, he was the only face and unchallenged leader of the Congress party in the state. The party machinery, administration, police — all acknowledged him as the super-boss. But ten years later, Jyotiraditya Scindia is being increasingly projected as a probable chief minister if the party comes to power, while Digvijaya Singh stands side-lined, dejected and sometimes even humiliated.
His opponent in the 2003 polls and 'hero' of the BJP Uma Bharti, who brought the party to power after a massive victory, has fared no better. Expelled by the BJP in 2005 and invited back into the party in 2011, she has been banished to Uttar Pradesh. Bharti does not enter the BJP state headquarters here to avoid complaints against her by party colleagues who have grown powerful in the eight years of Shivraj Singh Chouhan's regime.
On Thursday, as Digvijaya gave his 'setting-sun' speech, Uma Bharati called reporters to her official residence here for a press conference. A scribe asked her: "Why are you not being called to campaign in the state? Why is there no bigger role for you?"
Uma Bharti winced at the questions and said: "The party has made a schedule and I have been asked to be here for six days of campaigning. But why I am not being given a bigger role is a question I cannot answer. You will have to ask the BJP national president Rajnath Singh that question." Beyond doubt, Uma Bharti is aggrieved that the party has exiled her out of Madhya Pradesh at the insistence of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
But despite the contest between 'maharaja' of Gwalior, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the 2013 assembly polls so far has been a mundane affair in comparison to the electoral thrill of 2003.
2003 was the most eventful assembly elections that Madhya Pradesh witnessed with the contest between a 'sanyasin' in saffron and the former chief minister and raja of Raghogarh. In the bitter-battle for Madhya Pradesh, political parties stopped at nothing — from the gods to dirty linen. Digvijaya Singh-led Congress screamed "eggs" in a milk cake offered to Lord Hanuman by Uma Bharati — the episode came to be known as the 'Cake Kand'.
The BJP retaliated with statistics on the 'bijli', 'paani', 'sadak' crisis in the state and hate speeches where Uma Bharati even suggested electrocuting Digvijaya Singh with the defunct electric polls of the state electricity board and then throwing him into potholed highways.
Digvijaya Singh blamed droughts in the state on the 'bachelor' status of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee claiming that an unmarried man ruling the nation brought misfortune and no rain. As BJP called for a ban on illegal cow-slaughter in Ganjbasoda in Vidisha district, the Congress released slogans claiming Vajpayee was a beef-eater, which was vehemently denied by the then sitting Prime Minister.
After the Congress's attack on BJP patriarch Vajpayee, there was no holding back Uma Bharti. With the sharpest words, she stripped down Digvijaya Singh. At every public meeting, she claimed Digvijaya Singh was wearing a shining hat but his 'underwear' was missing. The acrimony was intense but BJP came to power with a whopping three-fourth majority and a woman BJP leader had pulled down the decade-old rule of charismatic Digvijaya Singh.
source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com