00:00Well, even before assembly elections have officially been announced for Madhya Pradesh,
00:07Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana, the BJP's done something unusual. It's gone ahead
00:12and announced candidates in Madhya Pradesh in as many as 39 seats. These are interestingly
00:17seats the party lost back in 2018 and also even back in 2013. They're hoping that by
00:23announcing the names early, the candidates will have a head start and will be able to
00:28campaign more effectively. This tells you how seriously the BJP is taking the Madhya
00:32Pradesh election. This is, after all, a crucial Hindi heartland state and it will be going
00:36to the polls literally months before the Lok Sabha election. But the BJP faces significant
00:41challenges in Madhya Pradesh this time. For one, huge anti-incumbency because the party's
00:46been in power here now for some 20 odd years, barring about a year or so in which Kamal
00:51Nath of the Congress was Chief Minister. So, there is a lot of voter fatigue with Chief
00:55Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. And Mr. Chauhan knows that the only reason he is Chief Minister
00:59right now is not because the BJP won the last assembly election, actually they lost it,
01:04but because Jyotiraditya Sindhiya rebelled and walked away with 22 MLAs and brought Kamal
01:08Nath's government down. The second problem for the BJP is that this too could end up
01:13being a close contest with the Congress. And that's why they're not taking any chances.
01:18And finally, there's infighting within the BJP state unit between those loyal to Mr.
01:22Sindhiya and his camp and the old guard of the party. In fact, as many as three of Mr.
01:28Sindhiya's senior loyalists have walked away from him and gone back to the Congress in
01:32recent months. So, the Madhya Pradesh battle is an important one where the BJP is pulling
01:37out all the stops. Will it work? We'll have to wait and see.
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