Didn’t want a govt on crutches: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Mama bahut yaad ayega… par afsos mat karna kyunki Tiger abhi zinda hai(You will miss Mama a lot, but don’t regret as Tiger is still alive) – former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in village Suned in his constituency of Budhni on Monday, where he is on a 4-day-long trip.

From taking a train ride to Bina and back from Bhopal last week to interact with locals, riding pillion on a motorcycle to villages in Budhni on Sunday, travelling to other districts to meet BJP workers and even a surprise visit to a night shelter in Bhopal on December 22, Chouhan seems to have put the loss in the assembly elections behind him and embarked on a public connect exercise in his inimitable style as Lok Sabha elections are just months away. “The Common Man of MP,” said his new Twitter profile.

Chouhan makes it a point to stress that that BJP got more votes in the state, but Congress got five more seats in his speeches to small gatherings in villages. “It is still not a majority government, langdi sarkar hai (it is a government on crutches). If I had wished, I could have also formed such a government but I thought that I will not form a government on crutches but only one with full majority,” Chouhan emphasised.


Those close to Chouhan say the tours by him as ex-CM are aimed at keeping the morale of BJP workers high before the Lok Sabha battle. Chouhan attempts the same by telling villagers that he will launch an agitation and gherao the government with lakhs of farmers if it does not waive farm loans within a month. Chouhan said he will fight to ensure his schemes are not shut down or crop prices fixed by him as CM are paid in full. “Ab ladai ka toh mein champion hun (I’m a champion of fighting for your cause),” Chouhan said.

The former CM’s announcement earlier this month to proceed on an ‘Aabhaar Yatra’ (gratitude tour) across the state to thank voters, however, seems to have been put off for now. “Aabhaar Yatra was a thought put forward by him, not a final plan. He is now on a tour going to every street meeting our workers,” BJP spokesman VD Sharma told ET.