Tag: Sulochana Rawat

  • Big win for Shivraj Singh Chouhan as BJP trounces Congress 3-1 in Madhya Pradesh bypolls

    By Express News Service

    BHOPAL: In what was seen as Shivraj Vs Kamal Nath battle, the Madhya Pradesh chief minister has outsmarted the Leader of Opposition.

    The CM, who is undoubtedly BJP’s most popular face in the state after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned to the full against Nath, who not only joined the campaign trail late, but also largely remained confined to addressing lesser rallies than Chouhan.

    While Chouhan addressed 39 rallies between September 29 and October 27 (maximum 8 in Prithvipur assembly seat and minimum five in Jobat-ST assembly seat, besides 17 rallies in eight assembly segments of Khandwa Lok Sabha constituency), Kamal Nath addressed merely 13 rallies between October 12 and October 17. 

    Not only did 74-year-old Kamal Nath hit the campaign trail nearly two weeks after 62-year-old Chouhan did, but also addressed 26 fewer meetings than the present CM.

    And that wasn’t all. As Kamal Nath just stood confined to addressing a few rallies, Chouhan followed the rallies with night halts at the houses of BJP workers at five places in the by-poll bound assembly and parliamentary constituencies.

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    “These polls have once again established that the CM is the most charismatic BJP leader in the state. His night halt in Jobat-ST seat, which has since decades been a Congress citadel, played a seminal role in boosting BJP’s chances. The night halt was followed by early morning chaupal with tribals, which not only boosted BJP prospects among tribals but also compelled the BJP workers to shelve their anger over the fielding of imported candidate (ex-Congress MLA Sulochana Rawat) instead of a core BJP candidate and work unitedly for the party’s success. On the other hand, Nath remained more in the air and less on the ground, sticking largely to the virtual world of Twitter,” said Chandrabhan Singh Bhadauria, a senior journalist, who extensively covered the Jobat-ST by-poll.

    Even in the Raigaon-SC seat of Satna district (a BJP citadel) which was the lone seat won by the Congress, the CM had started working on ground zero, even before the by-polls were announced. “It was largely due to faulty candidate selection which led to internal differences within the local party organisation and the absence of a BSP candidate that helped the Congress candidate win the by-election. There was no decline in the CM’s popularity anywhere in the constituency. Had the CM not toured the constituency proactively, the BJP candidate would have lost by much bigger than the present 12,000-plus votes margin,” Satna district-based political commentator Vishnukant Tripathi said.

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    Not only was ex-CM Kamal Nath outclassed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, but another Congress stalwart and ex-CM Digvijaya Singh too suffered major jolt due to the loss in Khandwa Lok Sabha and Jobat-ST seat, where electioneering was largely supervised by him. Particularly in the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat, the former MLA Raj Narayan Singh Purni was given the Congress ticket due to proximity to Singh only.

    The 3-1 by-poll win not only ended up becoming a shot in the arm for Chouhan (ending speculations about his replacement as CM), but also once again brought to the fore organisational capabilities and poll winning strategies of young state BJP president VD Sharma. “Though he came under heavy criticism over outsiders Sulochana Rawat (who won from Jobat-ST) and Shishupal Yadav (who won from Prithvipur) being fielded as BJP candidates instead of core BJP leaders, but his micro-level planning ensured the party’s triumph on three of the four seats,” said political journalist Chandrabhan Singh Bhaduaria.

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    The loss of three out of four seats (two of which were won by Congress in 2018 polls) also once exposed the hollowness of the tall claims of the Congress party of being united in the by-polls. In Khandwa, fielding Raj Narayan Singh Purni instead of ex-MP and former union minister Arun Yadav, was seen to have largely prompted first-time Congress MLA Sachin Birla to switch to BJP just six days before the by-poll. Importantly, it was Birla’s Barwaha assembly segment (one of the eight seats making the Khandwa LS seat) from where the BJP led by maximum margin.

    In Jobat assembly seat, the Congress being a divided house became official, after the loser Congress candidate Mahesh Patel blamed some senior Congress leaders for the defeat. “Some Congress leaders have contributed to the party’s defeat, I’ll submit a report about it to state party chief Kamal Nath,” Patel said.        

    Results:

    Khandwa Lok Sabha seat: BJP’s Gyaneshwar Patil defeated Congress’s Raj Narayan Singh Purni by 82,140 votes (2019 LS polls: Congress won by 2.73 lakh plus votes)
    Jobat-ST assembly seat: BJP’s Sulochana Rawat defeated Congress’s Mahesh Patel by 6,104 votes. (2018 polls: Congress won by 2,056 votes)
    Prithvipur assembly seat: BJP’s Shishupal Yadav defeated Congress’s Nitendra Singh Rathore by 15,687 votes. (2018 polls: Congress defeated SP by 7620 votes)
    Raigaon-SC assembly seat: Congress’s Kalpana Verma defeated BJP’s Pratima Bagri by 12,290 votes (2018 polls: Cong won by 17,421 votes)

  • Rebellion in BJP over entry of ex-Congress leader, son ahead of MP bypolls

    By Express News Service

    BHOPAL:  The ruling BJP in bypoll bound Jobat constituency in Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur district is faced with a rebellion in its ranks after the entry of ex-Congress MLA Sulochana Rawat and her son Vishal into the party.

    Irked over the mother-son duo’s inclusion in the party, many local BJP functionaries in Jobat have offered to resign from their posts.

    Two other leaders have taken nomination forms for the October 30 bypoll to contest as rebels if the BJP fielded either Sulochana or her son from the constituency, which has largely been a Congress bastion.

    Former Jobat Nagar Parishad chairman Dipak Chouhan and Alirajpur district president of the party’s youth wing Abhijit Dawar are in no mood to accept the mother-son duo in the party and have announced to fight the by-polls as rebels, if the party gives ticket to either of the Rawats. 

    Just a day after the mother-son duo joined the BJP in Bhopal on Sunday, many local BJP functionaries had opposed the entry of the two.

    At least nine local functionaries while offering to resign from their party posts in the presence of MP minister Om Prakash Sakhlecha in Jobat on Monday, made it clear that they would oppose any move by the party to field anyone else from outside Alirajpur district.

    Most of those opposing the Rawats are considered loyalists of ex-BJP MLA Madhosingh Dawar, who was till recently seen as the front-runner for the poll ticket.  

    The tribal reserved Jobat seat has been won by the Congress 11 times in the past, out of which the powerful Rawat family has won nine times. 

    No surprise in Congress pick in candidates

    In the opposition camp, the Congress on expected lines declared Alirajpur district party president Mahesh Patel as its candidate for the Jobat bypoll.

    Kalpana Verma was nominated for Raigaon-SC Assembly bypoll.

    Party veteran and three-time former MLA Raj Narayan Singh Dhurni would be the candidate for the Khandwa-Burhanpur Lok Sabha seat bypoll.  

  • Major jolt to MP Congress in tribal bastion as ex-minister Sulochana Rawat, son join BJP ahead of by-poll

    By Express News Service

    BHOPAL: Opposition Congress suffered a jolt just four weeks before the October 30 parliamentary and assembly by-polls in Madhya Pradesh, as party’s former MLA Sulochana Rawat and son Vishal Rawat joined the ruling BJP on Saturday late night.

    The development came as a major setback to the party’s prospects in the by-poll to Jobat-ST assembly constituency, which is among the three assembly seats up for by-poll on October 30.

    Sulochana Rawat was a minister in the Digvijaya Singh-led erstwhile Congress government in the state two decades back. He had won the Jobat seat in 1998 and 2008, while son Vishal contesting on Congress ticket had lost from the seat in 2013 to BJP’s Madho Singh Dabar. He finished third behind Congress rebel candidate with over 30,000 votes in the 2018 polls.

    Importantly, the Jobat-ST seat of Alirajpur district has been won by the Congress 11 times, losing only four times since 1951. The powerful Rawat family had successfully contested the seat 9 times, including Sulochana Rawat after her father in law Ajmer Singh — who won the seat seven times in a row between 1967 and 1993. 

    Sulochana Rawat and son Vishal joined the BJP in Bhopal at around 11.30 pm on Saturday after around six hours marathon meeting with saffron party’s top brass in the state, including state CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state party chief VD Sharma.

    The mother-son duo attributed tribal development and welfare centric recent announcements by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government to have prompted their switchover from Congress to BJP. But an audio clip of Vishal Rawat purportedly talking to one of his supporters over the phone about the change of party, suggested that he along with ex-minister mother joined the saffron party following an assurance from top BJP leadership of ruling party ticket in the Jobat by-poll.

    However, when asked by scribes at a press conference at state BJP HQ about whether Sulochana Rawat or Vishal Rawat will be fielded by the BJP in the October 30 by-poll, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan smilingly replied, “you’ll be informed about it soon.”

    As per informed sources, it is union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is behind the mother-daughter duo’s joining the saffron party, which was clearly revealed by the presence of Scindia loyalist cabinet minister Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon in the evening. Sulochana Rawat has in the past being seen as a Kamal Nath’s loyalist.

    Though Shivraj Singh Chouhan was present at the duo’s BJP joining and also at party’s press conference at state party HQ on Sunday, it’s believed that he is in favour of BJP fielding ex-MLA Nagarsingh Chouhan’s wife Anita Nagarsing Chouhan from Jobat seat.

    According to informed sources in Alirajpur district, the district Congress chief Mahesh Patel (whose brother Mukesh Patel is Congress MLA from Alirajpur seat) is the frontrunner for Congress ticket from Jobat seat and was opposed to Sulochana or her son Vishal being fielded by the party. He would have fielded a rebel candidate had Sulochana or Vishal been given the Congress ticket.

    Knowing well that Congress would deny by-poll candidature to them, Sulochana Rawat and Vishal Rawat joined the BJP.

    Three assembly seats — Jobat-ST, Prithvipur and Raigaon-SC will be up for by-poll along with by-election to Khandwa-Burhanpur Lok Sabha seat on October 30. The by-elections to the three assembly seats and one LS seat were necessitated by death of sitting MLAs and MP. While two of three seats (Jobat-ST and Prithvipur) were held by Congress, the ruling BJP held the Raigaon-SC and Khandwa-Burhanpur seats.

  • Former MP minister Sulochana Rawat, son, leave Congress, join BJP

    By ANI

    BHOPAL: Former Madhya Pradesh Minister Sulochana Rawat and her son Vishal Rawat left the Congress and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the residence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday.

    Sulochana had represented Jobat constituency in the Assembly three times, where bypolls are scheduled to be held on October 30.

    Speaking to ANI, BJP Madhya Pradesh president VD Sharma said, Sulochana who has been a strong leader in Congress and represented the Jobat constituency, joined the BJP along with her son Vishal Rawat.

    “I welcome them to the BJP family,” he said.

    Whether it’s Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana or Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the BJP has always worked for the welfare of the tribals and women, Sharma said.

    He stated that she was influenced by the development work being carried out under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Chouhan so she and her son joined the BJP.

    Asked about its impace on the next bypoll, “A leader who has had a great influence on the tribal community will definitely strengthen the BJP,” he added.