Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party sent a message to rival parties with its show of strength at Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony for Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal in Assam, the event doesn’t seem to have gone down well with the chief ministers of other saffron states.
As the BJP’s first chief minister in the North East took his oath of office in the presence of the party’s top brass and chief ministers of several other BJP-ruled states, the party announced Act East campaign to advance its footprint in the region.
However, some other chief ministers were that only one of them – Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan – was invited to speak on the occasion. The rest were spectators on the dais.
“The move to single out Shivraj-ji made other chief ministers feel as though they did not exist,” said a senior BJP leader considered close to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh.
BJP officials said that the invitation for the swearing-in had asked chief ministers of states ruled by the party and to allies to be attend the event.
Besides Chouhan, BJP chief ministers who attended the event were Vasundhra Raje Scindia of Rajasthan, Anandiben Patel of Gujarat, Devendra Fadnavis of Maharashtra, Manohar Lal Khattar of Haryana, Singh of Chhattisgarh, Raghubar Das of Jharkhand and Laxmikant Parsekar of Goa.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of the Telegu Desam Party – both BJP allies – also attended the ceremony.
“The impression that the invite gave was that no chief minister would speak on the occasion,” said a minister from Gujarat. “The change in programme must have happened at the last minute. Other chief ministers should have been consulted before making that change.”
Baffling decision
This gesture assumes significance in view of speculation that Modi is not happy with the performance of some of his chief ministers, especially Patel, Raje and Singh.
“The entire episode looked discriminatory because Shivraj-ji is neither the senior most among the chief ministers, nor is he the one who would be facing Assembly election first,” said a party leader who was present at the event.
This leader added: “If one person had to be called to speak at the event, it should have been either Raman Singh, as he is the senior-most among the chief ministers, or Anandiben Patel, as her state will be going to polls early next year. It would have been better had no one been called to speak on the occasion.”
This seemingly arbitrary decision has left party leaders disconcerted. Officials close to the BJP feel that it may have been a way to convey that Chouhan is being looked upon favourably by Prime Minister Modi.