Uma Bharti BJP’s 2018 Madhya Pradesh CM face?

Bhopal: The “unscheduled” meeting of Union water resources minister Uma Bharti with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at Nagpur, Maharashtra, on Wednesday has given rise to speculations that she might be projected as an alternative for chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan by the BJP in 2018 Assembly elections in MP.

Sources close to Ms Bharti said on Thursday that the meeting, at RSS headquarters, had reportedly taken stock of the simmering farmer unrest in Madhya Pradesh in the wake of June 6 killing of five tillers in police firing at Mandsaur.

The meeting that lasted nearly 15 minutes has been attached with much significance in the ruling BJP circle here, in view of alleged failure by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government to address the issue politically. The unrest in the state threatens to alienate farmers from the BJP, which is a strong base of the BJP in MP. 

The Central party leadership was particularly worried over the lukewarm response that BJP’s ongoing “Kissan Yatra” has received in the state so far. The party had launched a “Kissan yatra” to reach out to farmers across the state to address their grievances following the Mandsaur tragedy.

The yatra attracted hostile receptions at several places, particularly in Mandsaur, from the farmers, even though the state government has announced a series of measures like subsidised electricity and fertilizer and fresh farm loans to them. It left the party leadership seriously worried.

Ms Bharti however tried to underplay the development by saying that politics did not figure in the meeting. “I was there (in RSS headquarters) to pay my respects to the RSS chief,” she later told the media. Ms Bharti had led the BJP to power in MP in 2003 Assembly elections by defeating Digvijay Singh-led Congress.