Stone pelted at Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s bus; all is not well in MP for BJP

Things are getting difficult for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with each passing day. The kind of mandate they secured more than four years ago was an indication of their support from the common people. But it dwindled sharply in no time. The “stone throwing” incident in its own den Madhya Pradesh was egg-on-the-face situation for India’s largest political outfit.

It was on Sunday that some people hurled stones at Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s bus in Sidhi en route to a state tour keeping an eye on the assembly elections. Stones were thrown at Churhat area — assembly constituency of opposition leader Ajay Singh, according to BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agarwal.

Refusing to divulge more information, Churhat Police inspector Ram Babu Choudhari told news agency PTI that Chouhan wasn’t hurt by stones pelting. Churhat is almost 25 kilometres away from district headquarters.

Agarwal’s allegations towards Congressman Singh were endorsed by the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister during a public meeting as part of his Jan Ashirwad Yatra in the district. He openly challenged Singh to come and fight with him. “Ajay Singh, if you have strength come in open and fight with me. I am physically weak but I won’t be bogged down by your deeds. People of the state are with me,” he was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

Addressing a public meeting in Churhat, Chief Minister also challenged Ajay Singh to “come out in the open and fight” with him. “The Congress is baying for my blood. No politician stooped so low in Madhya Pradesh,” said Mr Chouhan.

This allegation didn’t go down well with Congress and Singh was quick to react on the matter. “I suspect that it was a well thought and hatched conspiracy aimed at defaming me and people of Churhat,” he was quoted by the same publication.

Chounhan is the 18th chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and has been in chair since November 2005. Despite winning the Budhni constituency seat since 2005, Chouhan suddenly lost the elections from both Budhni and Vidhisha in 2013. However that didn’t dash his hopes of becoming the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister for the third straight term.