As Shivraj Singh Chouhan tours Madhya Pradesh to rewrite poll script, son rallies for CM in Budhni

In 2013, Chouhan had contested from Budhni and Vidisha. While Kartikey, then a teenager, took care of Budhni, his mother looked after Chouhan’s campaign in Vidisha. “Sometimes I return home (in Bhopal) around 11.30 pm, my father comes even late. When I get up, I see him (already) ready — we get hardly five minutes to talk. But like all workers I also give him my feedback,’’ Kartikey told The Indian Express.

Touching feet and bowing before elders, and keeping his hands on shoulders of youngsters, the young Chouhan gives an impression that he is at ease with himself as he fleets from one house to another in lanes and bylanes of the constituency’s many villages.

On campaign trail, he wears garlands, accepts bouquets, poses for selfies and bows before women who perform aarti when he enters home. He restricts his appeal to few words. “I am here to seek blessings. I know you will do the needful.’’ he says, rarely mentioning his father before handing over a pamphlet to each voter with an appeal: “Please go through this.’’

Probably for the first time, Kartikey and his mother were nearly heckled at a couple of places recently, and the videos were widely shared on social media. “People have a lot of expectation from us and they express their feelings. I will not call it heckling,’’ he said.  BJP leaders blame the Congress for these videos.

A Law graduate from Symbiosis, Kartikey claimed that the Congress has made the BJP’s job easier in Budhni, nearly 70 km southeast of state capital Bhopal, in Hoshangabad district, by fielding a rank outsider like Arun Yadav against the Chief Minister. “We will win by over 1 lakh votes this time,’’ he claimed. Ask people randomly, and they will not be able to recall the Congress candidate’s name, Kartikey added.

On the defamation case he filed recently against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for mentioning, in one of his campaign speeches, the “chief minister’s son” and their alleged involvement in the Panama Papers scandal — Rahul later admitted that he was confused between the chief ministers of Chhattisgarh and MP — Kartikey said, “You can’t afford to be confused when you are the national president of a party.” The case is in a Bhopal court.

On his future in electoral politics, Chouhan junior said he will not contest elections soon because there are many “deserving candidates” in the party who have toiled for long. Early last year, he gave a speech in Kolaras, in Shivpuri district, in a by-election — his first outside Budhni constituency.