Shivraj Singh Chouhan is a man to watch. He could give Modi a run for his money on the acceptability index, writes Aditi Phadnis The Madhya Pradesh chief minister is so low profile that few realise he could be Modi's counterweight within the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Driving through Bhopal on Christmas Eve, a bureaucrat was surprised to find Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's home wreathed in fairy lights. "What's happening," he asked the driver. "Chief minister
saab is hosting a Christmas party for Christians," came the reply.
Bear in mind that Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Last year, on Eid, Chouhan went for a
padyatra through the Muslim-dominated Shahjehanabad locality of Bhopal, going into houses and embracing men in the traditional greeting.
The previous year, he stood outside Bhopal's main mosque, throwing flower petals at people coming out after Eid
namaz. Obviously, he is not secular, given his background in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. But he is an admirer of Atal Bihari Vajpayee -- he was the only BJP chief minister who demanded on Vajpayee's birthday that a Bharat Ratna be conferred on the former prime minister.
The recent communal riots in Ratlam were the first after more than 10 years. Over 150 people had died in communal riots in Bhopal after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Hence, the state has seen some tense Hindu-Muslim confrontations in the past. But Chouhan has launched a scheme for partially subsidising
teerth yatra -- and Ajmer is as eligible a
teerth as Kailash Mansarovar.
Chouhan is one of the BJP's most retiring chief ministers. This is the reason most people forget that he almost matches Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's record in office -- if he wins the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh due later this year, it will be his third term as chief minister, albeit truncated because he served only half of the first one.
Madhya Pradesh has a good record in financial management with the lowest revenue deficit in the country.
Well, it lost most of its mineral wealth with the creation of Chhattisgarh, the state staggered but managed to stabilise itself because of two commodities: soyabean and wheat. Madhya Pradesh grows more than 70 per cent of India's soyabean. But what is really lucrative is the export of de-oiled soya cake. (Soyabean has 40 per cent of protein content and 26 per cent oil content. Once the oil has been removed, the high-protein residue, known as de-oiled soya, is an excellent source of animal and bird feed, and is in high demand in Argentina, Brazil, etc. Because it is non-genetically
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modified, wary European buyers also buy it in large quantities.