E-Paper
BJP leaders meet CM Chouhan amid friction in party’s MP unit
According to a senior party leader, apart from the election strategy, the discussion extended to the issue of anti-incumbency.
Senior Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Patel held a meeting with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday night to discuss rising voices of dissent against the party’s leadership in the state, internal friction, and some senior leaders joining the opposition Congress, party leaders familiar with the developments said.
According to a senior party leader , apart from the election strategy, the discussion extended to the issue of anti-incumbency.
The state will go to polls in December along with Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram, in the last big round of state elections before the 2024 national elections.
The party is keen to retain Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP has been in power for 20 years except for a two-year period (December 2018-March 2020) when the Congress was in power.
Days before the meeting, two ministers in Chouhan’s cabinet, Gopal Bhargava and Govind Singh Rajput, and three BJP MLAs, alleged that urban development minister Bhupendra Singh was not sanctioning projects in their constituencies.
On Tuesday, Bhargava and Rajput met Chouhan on the issue. According to a second party leader, the CM assured the two that he would find a solution. The BJP’s central leadership has also sought a “factual” report from the state BJP unit on the fight, said a third party leader.
The party is also closely monitoring utterances by party leaders that point to unhappiness with some of the ministers and the party’s state leadership. For instance, former BJP MLAs Satyanarayan Sattan and Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat have claimed that party leaders are not listening to their concerns and suggestions. Another former BJP minister , Anoop Mishra, has said that the party will face “difficulty” in elections if the voices of party workers is not heard.
Earlier this month, Deepak Joshi, son of former MP chief minister, Kailash Joshi, criticised the chief minister and the party leadership before joining the Congress. Another senior party leader and former president of MP OBC wing, Bharat Singh Kushwaha, too joined the Congress after accusing the party of being “taken over” by outsiders.
“Many of those who are raising these issues are aspirants for a party ticket and feel that they may not get a ticket this time. They are voicing their discontent as the party has started the process to identify winnable candidates for different constituencies,” a fourth party leader said , explaining the reason for these voices.
The third BJP leader said during Wednesday’s meeting, which was attended by the party’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, state BJP president VD Sharma and state general secretary Hitanand Sharma, the issue of some BJP leaders joining the Congress was also discussed.
He added that the major part of discussions, however, focused on the feud among leaders and their public statements.
“Some major decision will be taken to end these conflicts in the coming month as it is having negative impact on party’s preparations for polls,” the leader added.
