Journalism of Courage
From alleged sex scandals to corruption charges to moral policing,BJP ministers and legislators courted controversies the party could have done without during the second term of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Against this background,more than who gets the ticket it will be interesting to see who is left out.
Leading the pack was Raghavji,who was sacked as finance minister after an aide accused him of sodomy. He was in his 10th successive year in the Finance Ministry. The BJP maintained a distance from Raghavji since he was released on bail after nearly a month in jail but was forced to accommodate him on the dais at an official function in Vidisha,his constituency.
Raghavji,who was at the forefront of the opposition to the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax,has been trying to build bridges with his former colleagues. Party state president Narendra Singh Tomar has indicated the veteran may not get the ticket.
Forget the girl child and women,even young men are not safe in Madhya Pradesh, the Opposition Congress has been saying. Tribal welfare minister Vijay Shah was sacked after he made derogatory remarks against Sadhna Singh,wife of the CM. He,however,returned to the Cabinet in the last reshuffle before the election on the strength of his following among tribal voters.
He spent months in wilderness,even tonsuring his head before real politick regained him the ministerial berth. The BJP claimed it was satisfied with his explanation about what was construed as a talk with sexual innuendos.
The Congress often taunts Chouhan,asking could the man be trusted to protect the honour of women when his own wife was subjected to verbal humiliation and he could do little about it.
MLA Dhruvnarayan Singh,who has been questioned by the CBI in connection with the Shehla Masood murder case,also appears to have regained some ground. The aftermath of the sensational murder and the details that emerged after the arrest of the main suspect,Zahida Parvez,a few months later had almost put a question mark on his career,though he was never an accused in the case. The legislator insists his chances of getting the ticket are high because the party has not told him so far that he is being dropped.
A government employee has approached court accusing animal husbandry minister Ajay Vishnoi of asking him to send his wife to him. Vishnoi had resigned as health minister during the first BJP government after IT raids on his brother but made a comeback.
Education minister Archana Chitnis has been accused of misusing funds under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Complaints have been made against her in the Lokayukta and courts for allegedly diverting Rs 13 crore for lifelong subscription of a magazine for children published by an Indore-based RSS-affiliated trust. But the minister is confident. She says there is nothing wrong in making children read literature that instills a sense of nationalism.
Industry minister Kailash Vijayvargiya courts controversies at regular intervals by his moral commentary directed usually at women,asking them not to cross limits. Cooperatives and public health engineering minister Gaurishanker Bisen courted a slew of controversies in 2011. He publicly humiliated a patwari,asking him to do sit-ups after receiving corruption complaints. He also made a boy tie his shoelace,causing public uproar.
Harda MLA Kamal Patel spent months in jail in 2010 after the CBI arrested him in connection with the 2008 case of disappearance of Durgesh Jat,a friend of his son,in 2008.
