Win-lose dilemma

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is in a dilemma over whether he should field his wife, Sadhna Singh, from the Vidisha Assembly seat, which he vacated after the Assembly elections in favour of retaining Budhni. The party leadership, including L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj, left the decision to Chouhan and some of his loyalists want him to have his wife contest the seat. But Chouhan is taking his time before committing himself, and for good reason. For one, his wife is active in politics only by dint of accompanying Chouhan during his government-sponsored "Jan Ashirwad Yatra" and election campaign. As a result, she was fair game for the Congress party, the main Opposition in the state, during the Assembly elections. Also, though winning should not be a problem for a chief minister's wife, what if she loses? After all, Chouhan himself won the seat by an unimpressive margin of 16,000-odd votes.