The Congress will play the Narendra Modi card in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls to fan the factional fights in the ruling BJP and check the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
It plans to build up the election campaign on the theme of “A vote for the BJP will be a vote for Narendra Modi to become the PM.” This was revealed by a Congress strategist.
“Narendra Modi is not the only PM candidate in the BJP as Shivraj Singh Chouhan too is in the race. If Modi could play the PM candidate card in the Gujarat Assembly polls why not Chouhan?” he asked. But Mr Modi failed to retain the BJP’s numbers in the Gujarat Assembly despite playing the PM card, he pointed out. According to the Congress insiders, MP polls would see a clash between Mr Chouhan and Mr Modi. While the Gujarat CM will try to dominate the campaign to prove that he is a vote catcher, Mr Chouhan is the BJP’s face. Its national leaders like Mr L.K. Advani, Ms Sushma Swaraj have been praising Mr Chouhan suggesting that he performed better than Mr Modi as the chief minister.
Mr Chouhan is not depending on Mr Modi, the BJP’s election campaign committee chief, after winning the last two Assembly polls without him. And Mr Chouhan is distancing from Mr Modi if one goes by his recent comments on the relief works in Uttarakhand.
If the Congress insiders are to be believed, Mr Modi will certainly play games in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan polls to prove that Mr Chouhan and former chief minister Vasundhara Raje are lesser than him in stature.
Mr Modi knows very well that if Mr Chouhan retains power for a third time consecutively and Ms Raje comes back to power then they will not toe his line, could go with Mr Advani, they said. Mr Chouhan will replace many sitting BJP MLAs to check the anti-incumbency factor. But then they would turn rebel. This could certainly help Congress in the elections, the Congress leaders said while conceding that the Congress too will have to replace a large number of sitting MLAs this time.