Madhya Pradesh Elections: BJP Fielding Heavyweights To Contest Polls Causes Stir Among Some Local Workers

In a bid to check the factionalism ahead of the upcoming Madhya Pradesh elections, the BJP strategically fielded prominent party members including Union Ministers and MPs on challenging seats in the state.

With three Union ministers, four MPs, and a national general secretary being fielded in the electoral battle, the party aims to address the challenges of anti-incumbency and factionalism.

However, despite the announcement of 79 candidates out of 230, discontent within the state unit persists.

In Sidhi, the BJP has replaced three-time MLA Kedarnath Shukla with MP Riti Pathak.

Shukla fell out of favour with the party after a man, allegedly his supporter, urinated on a tribal man. This incident caused a political uproar and prompted Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to perform a symbolic gesture of washing the Adivasi man's feet as a damage-control measure.

“The whole party has been thrown into doubt over this. Riti Pathak has been given a ticket and it shows that the party shows no value to its grassroots workers. I have met over 20,000 people in the past few days and I will soon announce my plans," Shukla was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

Rajesh Mishra, the former Sidhi district president of the BJP, has resigned from various positions within the party in protest of the decision.

“I have not left the party but resigned from the various bodies of the BJP in Sidhi. I felt very bad about the decision. But I will continue to work for the BJP as always. It was a protest and the BJP is a democratic party and there is space for dissent,” he said.

In Satna, Ganesh Singh, a four-time MP, has been assigned the task of reclaiming the seat from the Congress.

In the last election in 2018, incumbent MLA Dabbu Siddharth Sukhlal Kushwaha ended the BJP's winning streak, which had been ongoing since 2003.

Ratnakar Chaturvedi, former BJP district vice-president, has resigned from the party in protest and will now run as an Independent candidate.

“I am getting the full support of my area and will contest as an Independent candidate. This strategy doesn’t sit well with us. It is our time to contest and they have brought in an MP to contest the election," Chaturvedi said.

He said that the MP will get his children to contest from the seat in the future. "I have given 15 years of my life to the BJP. I may not win the election, but I will ensure Ganesh Singh loses,” Chaturvedi added.

The BJP has also been dealing with internal conflicts between loyalists of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and long-standing members of the BJP.

Several Scindia loyalists have recently left the party and rejoined the Congress.

In Maihar, Shrikant Chaturvedi, a supporter of Scindia, has been given a ticket, angering incumbent MLA Narayan Tripathi, who defeated Chaturvedi in 2018.

Miffed with the decision, Tripathi has raised question as to why the Cabinet ministers, who were running the country, have been sent to the state.

"Will our Cabinet Ministers now do the job of the transfer of district officials such as revenue officers and policemen? Will our state leaders now contest the sarpanch election? This is wrong," he said.

Tripathi has established the Vindhya Janta Party (VJP) with the aim of advocating for the creation of Vindhya Pradesh as a separate state.

He clarified that he has not resigned from the BJP but chose not to seek a ticket from the party.

He is currently considering whether to contest on a VJP ticket.

In Sheopur, there is discontent within the party regarding the selection of former MLA Durgalal Vijay as a candidate.

While Vijay has previously won the elections in 2003 and 2013, he had also experienced two defeats in 2008 and 2018.

Despite this, the party has expressed its confidence in him.

Former district BJP president Radhey Shyam Rawat, who has been associated with the party since 1980, resigned on Thursday, citing the "repeated arbitrariness of senior leaders" and the continuous preference given to the "same person for the last 30 years."

Expressing his dissatisfaction, Rawat stated that no member of the Meena community has been given a position in the party in Sheopur.

Additionally, he criticised the party for selecting a candidate who consistently loses by large margins.

The candidature of Dr Tej Bahadur Singh in Ujjain’s Nagada-Khachrod constituency is being opposed by the BJP’s district coordinator for its legal branch, Lokendra Mehta, who has quit the party and decided to contest as an Independent.

Mehta, who has been a member of the BJP for 25 years, expressed his disappointment with the party's decision to prioritize "chamber politicians" over grassroots workers.

He also questioned the strategy of parachuting leaders into Congress strongholds.