Sensing People's Anger, MP Govt On Voter-Wooing Spree In Election Year

The assembly election is round the corner in Madhya Pradesh and both major parties in the state, the BJP and the Congress, have launched vigorous campaigning to woo voters.

However, this time, the BJP campaign is more defensive than what the party had launched in 2013, when the UPA government was facing 10 years’ anti-incumbency and corruption charges, real or imaginary.

The reasons are several. Besides the fact that the Modi wave witnessed at the time of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections is on the wane, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government is facing a 15-year anti-incumbency and corruption charges, including the infamous Vyapam scam.

Chouhan is almost working overtime, which includes announcing sops for the workers in the unorganised sector and the farmers who are angry with the government.

The recent violence against the SC/ST communities during Bharat Bandh on 2 April, the mounting graph of crime against women, the farmers’ agitation in Mandsaur, the failure of law and order in the state and the Vyapam Scam which shook the nation have already pushed the state government on the back foot.

The defeats in the recently concluded bypolls of two assembly seats — Kolaras (Shivpuri district) and Mungaoli (Ashoknagar district) have added fuel to the fire.

Moreover, the Union government’s policies have angered the voters, especially farmers, businessmen and SC/ST communities, which will ultimately affect the results of the upcoming elections in the state.

As the air gets politically charged in the lead-up to the assembly elections 2018, the pressure on Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is mounting.

Fearing backlash from voters, Chouhan has been taking some strange decisions in the run-up to the assembly election. Will the voters forgive and forget? Or will they remain unconvinced by this ruse?

Here are some major recent decisions taken by the Chouhan government.

1. Minister of State (MoS) status to Hindu seers

Madhya Pradesh CM Chouhan has recently accorded Minister of State (MoS) status to five Hindu seers — Narmadanand Maharaj, Hariharanand Maharaj, Computer Baba, Bhayyu Maharaj and Pandit Yogendra Mahant.

Interestingly, Computer Baba and Yogendra Mahant were planning to lead the ‘Narmada Ghotala Rath Yatra’ to expose an alleged scam in the planting of saplings on the banks of the Narmada river — planted during the CM’s ‘Narmada Seva Yatra’ — and to demand a ban on illegal sand mining. They junked the yatra as the CM accorded them MoS status.

2. Regularisation of 2.84 lakh contractual teachers

Chouhan agreed to the long-standing demand of regularising 2.84 lakh contractual teachers in the Education Department. In widespread protests, teachers had done mass tonsuring of their heads. Moreover, as per media reports, teachers as well as students in some districts had taken an oath to not vote for the BJP in the upcoming assembly elections.

3. Extension in retirement age from 60 to 62

On 31 March 2018, Chouhan extended the retirement age of state government employees to 62 years from the current 60 years. There are about 5 lakh regular government employees in the state.

Later, the Congress termed it cheating and said the decision was not going to benefit employees. On the contrary, this would deprive younger officials and employees from getting a promotion.

4. Announcement of recruit 1 lakh youths in 2018

Two days after raising the retirement age of government employees from 60 to 62, on 1 April Chouhan announced that his government would create 1 lakh jobs in various departments and abolish the contractual employment system soon.

Earlier, the government had faced criticism as the data tabled in the House showed that only 19,226 jobs had been created in government departments in 14 years of BJP rule.

5. Decision to close down ‘corruption ranking programme’

Fearing backlash from the IAS and IPS officers, the state government withdrew the ‘Corruption District Ranking’ system in the state, two months after the launch of programme. The ruling party also feared that the Congress could use this data to corner the government in the upcoming election.

6. Electricity @200

The BJP is in power since 2003 and Chouhan has spent more than 12 years in the CM’s office. Even after more than a decade, the government has failed to provide electricity to every house. To control the damage, on the occasion of his birthday on 5 March this year, the CM announced that the poor will be provided electricity for Rs 200.

However, the initiative is a violation of the Electricity Act 2003, which says that electricity supplied to any household or any other entity must be metered, and if it is metered, it cannot be sold at fixed rates.

7. Farmers’ agitation

The Mandsaur farmers’ agitation where six farmers were killed in police firing has affected the government in the worst way possible and turned the farmers’ community against the government. Since then, the state government is trying to do damage control and trying to woo the farmers by announcing a spree of sops for farmers.

On 12 February 2018, the Madhya Pradesh government announced a slew of sops for farmers, bringing back bonus on wheat over and above the minimum support price (MSP) under a different name, further modifying the Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana (BBY) and waiving interest on loans. Terming it as his scheme aimed at increasing productivity, CM Chouhan said the farmers would be paid Rs 200 bonus on every quintal they sold to the government in the last rabi season. Madhya Pradesh procured more than 67.25 lakh metric tonnes of wheat in the last season.

8. Implementing police commissioner system

After seeing the total collapse of law and order in recent incidents and the mounting graph of crime against women in two major cities, Bhopal and Indore, Chouhan pitched for the Police Commissioner System and proposed the ‘Madhya Pradesh Jan Suraksha Evam Sanraksha 2018’ Bill, through which the state government is planning to give magisterial powers to the police. The step is meant to ensure citizen safety in the two major cities. The government and police administration have been seeing this bill as the panacea to all crimes.

9. Legalising 4,000 illegal colonies of the state

On 15 March 2018, the state government cleared a crucial proposal to legalise the 4,000 illegal colonies that were constructed till December 2016. The demand to legalise these colonies was pending from a long time, but given the election year, the state government has passed the proposal in haste and the process of legalising colonies has begun. More than 4,500 illegal colonies have been identified in the state by the government through a survey.

10. ‘Share state government’s policies on social media, get chance to meet CM Chouhan’

On the lines of the now-infamous NaMo App, CM Chouhan had launched the Shviraj Singh Chouhan App a year ago. Recently, the CM added a new feature to his app — Share state government’s policies from Shivraj Singh Chouhan App on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter and get chance to meet CM.