Vyapam Scam: How BJP's Prepping Defense of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan

New Delhi: With a grisly line-up of 35 deaths of those with direct or indirect links to the Vyapam scam, the BJP is prepping its strategy to counter the demand for the resignation of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh today met with the beleaguered Chief Minister for an update on the investigation by the Madhya Pradesh police, which has been investigating the scam since 2013, under the supervision of the state's High Court.

"The High Court has to decide (on reassigning the inquiry to the CBI). ...how can we order the Supreme Court or the High Court (to do this)?" said the Home Minister today.

The Vyapam scam lurched over the weekend to the very top of the national agenda after a journalist working on an expose began frothing at the mouth while conducting an interview; he died hours later.

The Vyapam swindle is based on widespread cheating - including the use of proxies - in entrance exams for engineering and medical colleges, and qualifying tests for government jobs.

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Parliament meets on the 21st for the monsoon session. The opposition Congress had declared it would disrupt proceedings unless the government sacks Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje for extending favours to disgraced cricket tycoon Lalit Modi, wanted in India for corruption cases. Mr Chouhan's removal is likely to be added to the Congress' list.

The provenance of the Vyapam scam can be traced to before Mr Chouhan, whose political prowess and popularity is well-acknowledged. The earliest cases of cheating and of candidates being allowed to use proxies in exams were registered in years when the BJP was not in power; activists like Ashish Chaturvedi who have helped expose the scam point out that "both the Congress and the BJP played a role in the scam."

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But the conspiracy seems to have expanded considerably in recent years with Mr Chouhan as head of the state.