BJP celebrates Gaurav Diwas in MP, Narendra Modi kept away

BJP's Moderate Face

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan completed five years in office and the BJP's mega-show at jamboree ground in Bhopal saw almost all the top party leaders except Narendra Modi.

Chouhan who has maintained the image of a moderate leader in BJP just like Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh and Nitish Kumar who leads JDU-BJP coalition government in Bihar, seems sending a message once again that politics of religion and communalism has no space in MP.



The BJP had won in Madhya Pradesh after Congress government led by former CM Digvijay Singh was ousted after two successive terms due to popular anger over lack of power and poor infrastructure including roads.

Uma Bharti and Babulal Gaur had brief stints and once Shivraj took over he led BJP to victory in the next Vidhan Sabha election also. The BJP organised the programme to celebrate five years of Shivraj in office. Though there are murmurs of disapproval that the event is Chouhan's 'one-man-show' and there was not much reason of pride as power crisis still plagues the state.

Almost everyone including LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Venkaihan Naidu, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar were invited and they arrived for the mega Karyakarta Gaurav Diwas Sammelan at Bhopal. Karnataka CM Yeddyurappa and Narendra Modi were not invited. Yeddy is facing corruption charges.

Huge cutouts of BJP leaders are put up in Bhopal where lakhs participated in the convention but there was no cutout of Modi. This signals that BJP central leadership has finally decided not to project the personality of Narendra Modi whose brand of politics has been controversial in the past.