Ujjain: Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ‘informally’ launched election campaign ahead of Assembly elections-2018 via Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM)’s “chalo panchayat mahabhiyan” here on Monday.
Under the campaign he reached the city by plane and then went to village Gothda under Sikandari gram panchayat which falls under Ujjain South Assembly constituency. Despite it being a political event and district administration trying to show that it was not part of the event, CM distributed cheques, land ownership certificates, etc, to beneficiaries in the presence of senior officials.
Indirectly quoting Pradesh Congress Committee president Kamal Nath’s statement that he (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) is his friend, but he can’t say whether he is ‘layak’ (capable) or ‘nalayak’ (incapable) person, Chouhan listed his achievements as a CM during last 13 years.
CM asked the villagers present at Gothda whether they got water, roads, electricity, bridges and culverts, schools, irrigation facilities, land ownership certificate, houses, highest support price on procurement of different agriculture products, soft agriculture loans, ration at cheap rates, etc, during the Congress regime. Despite forcing people to reply to his questions, people did not respond vocally, but Shivraj continued to read out a chart comparing BJP government with the Congress government.
CM took a long time to portray himself as saviour of women by calling himself as ‘Mama Mukhya Mantri’ (CM as maternal uncle). In his agenda farmers were on second position and he said that they would continue to get ‘Mama mulya’ (extra money on support price for the procurement of agriculture products).
Before concluding his speech, Shivraj said, “Every house of Madhya Pradesh is getting benefit of one or the other scheme of his government and as such how Shivraj can be called ‘nalayak’.” Before leaving the city for Chhatarpur district by plane, CM also distributed cheques and certificates to beneficiaries of Ladli Laxmi Yojana, National Family Assistance, Ujjwala Yojana, Chief Minister’s welfare scheme and soil health cards on token basis.
Member of Parliament Chintamani Malviya, MLA Mohan Yadav and state BJYM president Abhilash Pandey expressed their views in the programme. To avoid controversy, divisional commissioner and IG distanced themselves from the tour programme of CM.
However, to maintain the CM’s protocol DIG, DM and SP remained present throughout and some of them also shared the dais. In fact, the administration was indecisive on its role for the event as it was organised by BJYM. A feast was also arranged for the villagers after the programme. No official press note or photo related to the event was released by the administration.