Amit Shah to release ‘report card’ of MP govt on Sunday; to address BJP’s working committee meet in Gwalior

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 pocket borough of Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, a party functionary said on Thursday.

“Shahji will come here (Bhopal) in the morning and release the report card of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government on August 20. Thereafter he will leave for Gwalior where he will chair and address the working committee meeting,” said the state BJP leader, who did not wish to be identified.

BJP insiders said party MLAs, MPs, district presidents and general secretaries have been told to reach Gwalior. Around 1,200 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.

The assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh will likely be held in a few months.

“We want to increase our movement in Gwalior, the erstwhile kingdom of the Scindias,” the 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 less than a month. On July 30, Shah visited Indore district where he address 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.