Shivraj Singh Chouhan pays power bill of Rs 1.2 lakh after 6-yr delay

A day after the Congress accused Shivraj Singh Chouhan of not paying the electricity bill of his rented house in Vidisha for six years, the BJP revealed the three-time chief minister of Madhya Pradesh had paid the arrears amounting to Rs 1.2 lakh.

The power distribution company sent Chouhan a bill of Rs 1, 22,833 lakh a week ago. Madhya Pradesh Education Minister Jeetu Patwari demanded on Tuesday the election affidavit of Chouhan should be rejected. Patwari accused Chouhan of hypocrisy in the issue, claiming he was organising protests across Madhya Pradesh on the issue of rising electricity tariffs and even asking farmers not to pay their bills.

On Wednesday, the Hindustan Times quoted BJP officials as saying that Chouhan had paid the outstanding amount on Monday itself.

The arrears are for a house in Sherpura in Vidisha that Chouhan had taken on rent over 13 years ago. Shashank Bhargava, Congress MLA from Vidisha, had alleged on Monday that Chouhan had not paid the power bills for the house since 2013. Bhargava told Hindustan Times Chouhan had “misused his position as chief minister to assure uninterrupted power supply to his Vidisha office without paying the bills since 2013”. Bhargava also demanded action against officials of the power distribution company.

An associate of Chouhan told the Hindustan Times that the former chief minister had not personally been staying in Vidisha in the past 14 years. The associate said some BJP leaders had used the house as an office premises. “It was these leaders’ fault that they didn’t clear the bills. When it came to the notice of the former CM, he took these BJP leaders to task and immediately cleared the bills,” the associate added.

Rajneesh Agrawal, spokesperson for the Madhya Pradesh BJP, accused the Congress of unnecessarily raking up an issue and declared there was no misuse of power by Chouhan.