HTLS 2021: Oppn can fight it out for No 2, says MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces no serious challenge in the 2024 general elections due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mass base, and the contest among opposition parties is for the second place, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Friday.

Speaking on the penultimate day of the 19th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Chouhan also detailed his state’s Covid-19 vaccination strategy, the BJP’s pro-farmer focus, and why he considered the Congress, the country’s principal opposition party, as rudderless and its own worst enemy.

He dismissed as pointless speculation about whether the Opposition in 2024 will be led by the Congress or the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has sought to aggressively expand its national footprint in recent months.

“The mass base and popularity of PM Modi is so massive that the BJP has no challenge. If at all there is a fight, it’s for the second spot. Congress, Mamata Banerjee or someone else can keep fighting for that. We have nothing to do with it,” he said.

The comments by Chouhan, senior BJP leader and one of India’s longest-serving chief ministers, came amid mounting tension between the Congress and its erstwhile ally Trinamool Congress over control of the Opposition space.

The Trinamool Congress has poached a number of high-profile leaders from the Congress in the last three months, including 12 lawmakers in Meghalaya, and leaders from both parties have hurled barbs at each other.

Chouhan referred to the tussle in his interaction while attacking the Congress.

“The condition of the Congress is so bad that even other parties are suspicious of its ability to lead the Opposition. Like, Mamata Banerjee is refusing to accept the Congress and saying she will emerge as an alternative,” he said in a conversation with HT’s national political editor Sunetra Choudhury.

Chouhan, who unseated a Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh last year for a fourth term as chief minister, criticised Rahul Gandhi, and said the latter was unable to fight on the field and not serious about politics.

“How to disturb and destroy a well-running government is something to learn from Rahul Gandhi. Look at what he did in Madhya Pradesh, we didn’t have to do anything. What was his behaviour towards Scindia ji? The government never even gave appointments to meet his associates,” Chouhan said.

He was referring to the collapse of the Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh in March 2020 after Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22 lawmakers close to him quit the Congress and joined the BJP.

Chouhan also criticised the crisis in the Congress government in Rajasthan, where former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot rebelled against chief minister Ashok Gehlot last year, and Punjab, where the party named Charanjit Channi to replace Captain Amarinder Singh as chief minister after a protracted fight for control of the party between the erstwhile CM and Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Congress state unit chief.

“When leaders are like this, the Congress doesn’t need any enemies. It’s slowly losing its own leaders. Punjab is a border state where Pakistan wants to encourage terrorism and destabilise India. In such a sensitive state, Rahul Gandhi has disturbed the government. There are now questions about the Congress’s own existence,” he said.

“I never take Rahulji’s statements seriously because he has never seen farms, villages and the countryside. Even farmers don’t trust his comments. He tweets and then takes a holiday. Such people can never understand the depth of any problem,” he added, while hailing Captain Amarinder Singh as a serious leader.

He hailed Modi’s leadership and said the PM’s development agenda was meant to transform the lives of ordinary Indians and raise the prestige of the country in the eyes of the world.

“Every decision made by Modiji is in the best interest of the country. He is a true world leader.”