5-STATE ELECTIONS: In poll-bound MP, resentment brews in BJP, Congress over ticket distribution

Anup Dutta

Bhopal, October 30

There has been widespread resentment in the party rank and file in the BJP and Congress following distribution of party tickets for the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh.

A day after Union Minister Amit Shah held divisional meetings of BJP workers and officials in Jabalpur to quell apparent bitterness in the party and galvanise the cadre for November 17 electoral battle in the state, BJP chief of Jabalpur city Prabhat Sahu tendered his resignation.

Leaders resign

BJP chief of Jabalpur city Prabhat Sahu, Sagar district vice-president Kamlesh Baghel and prominent party leader in Sagar district Sudhir Yadav have tendered their resignation.

Sahu was upset over party’s inaction over unruly scenes at the party office, in which a crowd was seen jostling around Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav, in charge of the MP BJP election campaign committee. The police said they had arrested three persons. “I have tendered my resignation to the BJP state president VD Sharma,” Sahu told the media, adding, “I am hurt with the party central leadership’s inaction against those responsible for the incident that occurred inside the BJP office on October 21.”

He added the person whose supporters allegedly created a ruckus in the party office was given the time to meet Shah yesterday (Saturday).

Shah is on a three-day visit to the poll-bound state to undertake a review of all 230 Assembly seats and give winning tips to party candidates and leaders for the polls. He has visited Jabalpur, Chhindwara, Bhopal, Chhatarpur, Rewa, Shahdol, Ujjain, Indore and Gwalior districts and addressed divisional meetings and public gatherings and took part in different functions.

Sahu is not the only one who tendered his resignation from party post over ticket distribution. Today, Kamlesh Baghel, Sagar district BJP vice-president and Sudhir Yadav, a prominent BJP leader in Sagar district, apparently resigned for not getting party ticket to contest from the Banda constituency. Ever since tickets have been served, there is stir both in the BJP and Congress and party workers have staged protests in front of party headquarters and outside the residence of former CM Kamal Nath. Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s vehicle was also stopped.

Followers of Munnalal Goyal, a senior BJP leader in Gwalior who was seeking the Gwalior East constituency ticket, reached Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace and held a protest. The supporters raised slogans against the BJP and were upset that ticket had been given to Maya Singh, Scindia’s aunt.

When Scindia came out of his house, some protesters even laid down before his car, said a BJP worker. Local leaders and workers of the BJP alleged that many names that figured in the list were either of outsiders, having no bonding with the public.

The main objection raised by the aspiring candidates from the Congress is that the party loyalists have been denied tickets, while relatives or friends have been given preference. Supporters of Damodar Singh, state vice-president of the Congress OBC unit, burnt effigies of Digvijaya Singh and his son Jaivardhan Singh in Bhopal, accusing them of not fielding enough candidates from the Other Backward Class (OBC) despite his insistence. Damodar has resigned from the party. “Rahul Gandhi claims that rights will be given according to the population, but these two (Digvijaya and his son) are not letting it happen,” alleged Damodar.