Shah to release Chouhan govt’s ‘report card’ on Sunday, address BJP’s working committee in poll-bound MP

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will release the Madhya Pradesh government’s “report card” here on Sunday and address the BJP’s working committee meeting in Gwalior, the home turf of Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, a party functionary said.

“Shahji will come here (Bhopal) in the forenoon of August 20 and release the report card of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government at a function. Thereafter he will leave for Gwalior where he will chair and address a working committee meeting,” Ashish Agrawal, state BJP media cell head, told PTI over phone on Saturday.

BJP insiders said party MLAs, MPs, district presidents and general secretaries have been told to reach Gwalior. Around 1,500 office-bearers have been called to the meeting where the party is expected to come out with its final plan for the polls, they said.

This will be the last meeting of the state working committee before MP goes to polls, due by the year-end.

“We want to increase our movement in Gwalior, the erstwhile kingdom of the Scindias,” another BJP leader said.

According to political observers, the BJP is striving to put up a good show in Gwalior and Chambal region, especially after losing the Gwalior mayoral elections last year to the Congress, after 57 years.

This will be Shah’s second visit to the state in the last 21 days. On July 30, Shah visited Indore district where he addressed booth-level workers.

In the 2018 assembly polls, the Congress won 26 of the 34 seats in the Gwalior and Chambal region. Jyotiraditya Scindia was a part of the Congress then.

After Scindia switched over to the BJP along with his loyalists, the Congress could win just 7 of the 19 seats in the bypolls in Gwalior and Chambal region in November 2020.

However, after the setback in last year’s Gwalior mayoral elections, the BJP doesn’t want to take any chances, said a political observer.