Madhya Pradesh polls: Shivraj Singh Chouhan ends campaign at Bhopal's Kolar

Time is of the essence

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who is seeking a fourth term in Madhya Pradesh, concluded his campaign with a public meeting in the Kolar area of capital city Bhopal. It is said that Kolar is lucky for Chouhan. Indeed, Chouhan has a routine: He starts his campaign by filing his nominations in Budhni and concludes it with a public meeting in Kolar. This has happened since 2008. During his speech Chouhan kept looking at his watch so that he didn't overshoot the time limit for campaigning set at 5.00 pm. He concluded his speech by 4.53 pm.

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A protest and a ceremony

Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on Monday laid the foundation stone for Dera Baba Nanak-Karatarpur Sahib road corridor at village Mann near in Gurdaspur. Hours before the ceremony, Punjab minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa pasted black tape on his name and that of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and some other Punjab ministers engraved on the foundation stone. That was his way of protesting the inclusion of the name of Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal on the foundation stone. "Why are their names here? It's not a BJP-Akali event," Randhawa complained. In the afternoon, however, Amarinder Singh was by Naidu's side when he laid the foundation stone for the corridor.

It's possible!

For the first time this election season, Congress leader and Member of Parliament Jyotiraditya Scindia indicated that he might be the chief ministerial candidate for the party in the state, after all. At a rally in Kolaras, Madhya Pradesh, local MLA Mahendra Yadav announced that if the party were to win the Assembly elections, he would vacate his seat for Scindia on December 16, to pave the way for the latter to become chief minister. When it was Scindia's turn to address the gathering, he said, "Whatever Mahendra has said is possible." He then turned his attention to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and their "mismanagement".