BJP will sweep 2018 MP Assembly polls: Rajendra Shukla

Unfazed by the Vyapam scam, Madhya Pradesh Cabinet Minister Rajendra Shukla today said BJP will sweep the 2018 Assembly elections and Congress will be unmasked by then.

"Congress is running a smear campaign against state BJP government and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Vyapam scam, but it will meet a disastrous fate once the investigations into it are over," Shukla told PTI.

"The 2018 Assembly elections will be fought over Vyapam (issue) and BJP will win it with a record landslide majority as Congress' false propaganda will stand exposed by then," the Energy, New and Renewable Energy Minister said.

"Truth will prevail finally once the probe into it gets completed. We just have to wait for some time," he said.

Shukla alleged that Congress was after Chouhan as it failed to unseat him in the last two Assembly elections due to his "clean, people-friendly image and immense popularity".

"Their only mission is to defame Chouhan by hook or crook. They have realised that as long as Chouhan leads BJP in Madhya Pradesh, they can't wrest power from it in the state," he said.

Without naming any leader, he said the MP Congress, with a feudal mindset, was after Chouhan as he happens to be a farmer's son. Chouhan has become an "eyesore" of Congress, he said.

Regarding the Vyapam scam, the minister said Chouhan blew the lid off it in 2013 and formed the Special Task Force (STF) to probe into it.

Before the CBI took over the probe into the scam, the STF had arrested more than 2,000 people, including a former BJP minister, he pointed out.

Once the High Court started monitoring the STF probe through Special Investigation Team (SIT), the state government kept itself aloof from the inquiry, he said.

Prior to the Congress' campaign against Chouhan, the Chief Minister was lauded in other states which copied his welfare schemes. During Chouhan's rule, the state has come out of the BIMARU (laggard) state tag and now MP enjoys a "numero uno" position in GDP and agricultural growth in the country, he said.

Rattled by Chouhan's progressive image, Congress is playing mischief to damage his reputation, but it won't succeed, Shukla said.