NEW DELHI: If everything goes according to BJP’s plan, three-time Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan may take over for a fourth term, after being out of power for 15 months, somewhat settling scores for BJP’s ouster in Maharashtra, where its rivals teamed up with Shiv Sena.
A few days ago, the Leader of Opposition in Gujarat assembly Paresh Dhanani had teased BJP benches by telling deputy CM Nitin Patel that Congress would “make him the deputy CM if he walked out of BJP with 15-20 MLAs”. The jibe may have discomfited Patel, but the brewing storm in Madhya Pradesh was just beyond the horizon.
The Madhya Pradesh shocker came even as Congress leaders felt they had a handle on BJP by challenging it on issues like the economy and anti-CAA unrest. Jyotiraditya Scindia and BJP were scripting a regime-change story.
Scindia’s joining will be a big boost to the saffron party, which lost the assembly po
