Poll countdown begins: The top 5 BJP faces to watch out for in Madhya Pradesh

Chouhan himself is battling a fatigue factor, with so many years at the helm.

Here is how the line-up looks:

Shivraj Singh Chouhan: Can he rise again?

Can Chouhan counter anti-incumbency and retain the CM chair is arguably the biggest question of these polls.

Like most stories in the BJP, Chouhan’s too starts with the RSS. The 64-year-old was born into a farmer’s family in Sehore district and joined the organisation in 1972. He was a member of the RSS student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and then the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) during his time as a student at Barkatullah University in Bhopal.

He went on to be elected from the Vidisha constituency in 1991, a seat he would win three more times.

Chouhan became a CM for the first time in 2005, taking over from Babu Lal Gaur, who had taken over just a year earlier, after his predecessor Uma Bharti was issued an arrest warrant in connection with the 1994 Hubli riots.

Chouhan’s tenure saw a marked shift from the controversial stint of Uma Bharti, with his emphasis on grassroots policies and eagerness to connect with the public.

Soon, he became one of the tallest leaders within the BJP with his strong focus on his OBC credentials – a strategy that helped erode the Congress base within the community. In 2014, when the BJP looked around for a new prime minister face with L K Advani failing to do the task in 2009, Chouhan was one of the names talked about as contenders. Eventually, of course, Narendra Modi would win the contest hands down.

Chouhan’s stature took a further hit when the BJP lost the 2018 Assembly elections, though narrowly, bringing his reign to an end. Kamal Nath-led Congress came to power in 2018. When his government was toppled in 2020, bringing Chouhan back to power, the rebellion of Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and his group that made this possible was engineered by the Delhi leadership. In turn, this further enfeebled Chouhan.

The CM is now banking on his pro-women and pro-poor policies to win him back another term. He has also tried to add an aggressive pro-Hindutva image to the mix, proudly owning the title “Bulldozer mama”.

However, as Modi takes control of the BJP campaign in the state, Chouhan appears to be getting pushed further into the background. He did not steer the party’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra, which was exclusively led by Central leaders. And now the fielding of Union ministers and MP heavyweights is being read as a signal that the BJP is looking firmly beyond Chouhan for the next chapter.

Jyotiraditya Scindia: The ‘royal’ rebel’s fight to fit in

If Chouhan is the old BJP hand, Scindia is the new party entrant who has quickly climbed up the ladder.

The Union minister of Civil Aviation and Steel in the Narendra Modi government, Scindia entered politics in 2002 when he won the Guna Lok Sabha bypoll necessitated due to the death of his father and senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia.

He represented Guna from 2002 to 2019, when he lost the seat to his former loyalist K P Yadav. He also served as a Minister of State for Communications, Commerce and Industry and power in the second Manmohan Singh ministry from 2012 to 2014. In 2020, he made the switch to the BJP and became a Rajya Sabha member.

Scindia’s rebellion is still the main attacking point for the Congress – and continues to be a sticking point for some BJP leaders who do not want to cede space to former rivals.

Even though at least three of Scindia’s supporters have been given tickets by the BJP, those in the second rung of power have been feuding with BJP leaders. Over the last few months, several of his loyalists have crossed back to the Congress, and been welcomed with open arms.

Kailash Vijayvargiya: Proven winner for BJP

Vijayvargiya, the BJP national general secretary and veteran Madhya Pradesh politician, made news recently when he said he was initially “shocked and confused” to see his name from the Indore 1 Assembly seat when the party declared its second list of candidates.

Vijayvargiya is known to be a skilled organiser and this experience – from corporator of the Indore Municipal Corporation to minister — is what the party is banking on to break the Congress stronghold in Indore and deliver all nine seats in the district to the BJP.

He is also expected to play a major role in the Malwa Nimar region, comprising 66 seats, from Indore to the south-west portions of the state adjoining Rajasthan and Gujarat.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, the BJP had swept the region, winning 57 out of the 66 seats, while the Congress had managed to win just nine seats. But in 2018, the Congress won 36 seats here.

As a six-time MLA from Indore, who won every Assembly election he stood in after 1990, Vijayvargiya has held various portfolios in the state Cabinet in the past: urban development, industries, information technology, and revenue.

In 2014, he was appointed the BJP’s election in-charge for Haryana, where he led the party to its first-ever majority in the state that year. In 2015, he became the national general secretary and was given the responsibility of overseeing the party’s affairs in West Bengal. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he delivered 18 seats to the BJP from Bengal – a huge achievement in a state where the party had little presence.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP emerged as the main Opposition in Bengal. The CPI(M) and Congress were wiped out.

Narendra Singh Tomar: Has experience, stature on his side

Tomar, the Union minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, is among the big players fielded by the BJP in this election.

He is also the convenor of the BJP’s election management committee and is expected to troubleshoot the problems that might arise among BJP veterans and Scindia loyalists.

Tomar’s experience and stature are key in this regard. He started his political career as the president of the BJYM’s Gwalior wing in 1980 and won his first MLA ticket back in 1998.

He was also the state president of the BJP for two terms, in 2006 and 2012. He has been an MP from Morena three times, and held crucial portfolios such as Steel, Mines, Labour, Employment, Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, and Food Processing at the Centre.

Prahlad Singh Patel: Close to Modi, Shah

Another surprise Union minister fielded for the MP polls, Patel is considered close to both PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

Patel, a five-time MP, is currently the Minister of State for Food Processing Industries and Jal Shakti.

He is going to contest from Jalam Singh Patel’s seat, Narsinghpur, in an attempt to consolidate the votes of his Lodhi community.

There is a buzz that he is a strong contender for CM chair owing to his organisational skills.

Patel too started out as a youth activist and became the district president of the BJYM in 1982. He became the general secretary of the organisation in 1986. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1989 from Balaghat and won the seat again in 1996 and 1999.

In 2003, Patel emerged as a confidant of Uma Bharti after she uprooted the decade old Digvijaya Singh-led Congress government. Soon, Patel moved to Delhi, heading the Coal Ministry in the A B Vajpayee government.

When Uma Bharti mounted a rebellion against Chouhan after he was picked for the CM post in 2005, Patel walked out with her as she formed the Bharatiya Janshakti Party. But in 2009, he returned to the BJP, and in 2014, he won his fourth term as MP from Damoh.

He retained the seat in 2019, with a margin of 3 lakh votes.