Madhya Pradesh: Sparring BJP leaders are working on ground to defeat CM Chouhan’s supporters

Pre-poll surveys in Madhya Pradesh had already predicted two months ago, based on voter mood, that Congress is likely to come to power. But, now it seems imminent that BJP’s 15-year rule in the state is heading towards an end.

Apart from the public mood, several leaders within BJP are fighting amongst themselves after the controversial candidate selection. There are huge chances of sabotage by their own cadre in the upcoming Assembly polls scheduled to be held in the last week of November.

At least a dozen strong leaders including two former Chief ministers are up against CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan and the central leadership over different issues. While Uma Bharti and her supporters are silently working to ensure the defeat of Shivraj Singh Chauhan, another ex-CM Babulal Gaur is has been openly criticising the state and central leadership.

Even though he has been an MLA for 44 years, Babulal Gaur had been denied a ticket this time due to his age. And Gaur was not in a mood to give in. He was adamant and demanded a ticket for the former mayor of Bhopal, Krishna Gaur, his daughter-in law, in his place. Central BJP leaders were not ready to oblige the octogenarian leader. He then threatened to field Krishna as an independent candidate if BJP didn’t agree to his demand. His threat worked and finally the party declared Krishna as a candidate in his place.

Similarly, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and her opponent Kailash Vijayvargiya, national general secretary of the party, were seen openly defying the norms laid down by none other than the BJP president Amit Shah that the party would not consider relatives of BJP leaders for tickets.

Both Mahajan and Kailash were adamant that their sons be given party tickets to contest. Since Mahajan was once very close to LK Advani, she doesn't enjoy a good rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah for obvious reasons. Shah obliged his close associate Kailash and gave a ticket to his son and denied Sumitra Mahajan's request, who is one of the senior MPs of the party. She is quite upset, and her supporters may spoil chances of BJP candidates in the areas dominated by her.

There are at least dozen leaders in the Madhya Pradesh who are very angry with the way BJP’s central leadership has been taking decisions. When the party lost all the four bye-elections a few months ago, senior RSS ideologue and former MP Raghunandan Sharma openly criticised Shivraj Singh Chauhan and blamed him for defeat.

The most prominent leaders in the anti-Shivraj camp are Uma Bharti, Prahlad Patel, Prabhat Jha, Babulal Gaur, Kailash Vijayvargiya and Anoop Mishra.

It is well known that Shivraj Singh Chauhan never gave importance to any of these leaders. When he took over the reigns from Babulal Gaur, Prabhat Jha was the party president in Madhya Pradesh. Jha rose to occupy the seat due to his closeness with the then powerful RSS leader Suresh Soni. Chauhan and Jha did not share amicable relations. Chauhan got him removed by through Nitin Gadkari. Jha, since then has been against Chauhan. The same thing happened with Kailash Vijayvargiya. He was a cabinet minister in the Uma Bharti government and was her loyal confidant. He remained powerful during change of guard. But Chauhan knew that Kailash wanted to become Chief minister, so he managed to get Vijayvargiya removed from state duties. Kailash has also criticised Chauhan several times.

Prahlad Patel is a strong Lodha leader after Uma Bharti and enjoys support in many parts of the state. He was a union minister of state in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government. Chauhan used all his contacts in the party so that Patel would not be a part of the Modi cabinet. Ever since Patel has been been extremely vocal and critical of Shivraj for his divisive politics.

Anoop Mishra, MP from Morena, is Atal Behari Vajpayee’s nephew. He was earlier a cabinet minister in the Uma Bharti government but Shivraj Singh was always threatened by him He was pushed out from the state politics and Chouhan also ensured that he would not be given a berth in Modi’s Cabinet. Mishra has since then been sulking and silently working against Shivraj. He knows that he would not be given a ticket for 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Sushma Swaraj, who is also an MP from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, has been lobbying for tickets for three or four of her loyalists. But, she couldn’t get a single ticket.

Chief of Congress's media committee in Madhya Pradesh and also a national spokesperson, Shobha Ojha, says, “BJP is a completely splintered party, they are fighting against each other in every district. Shivraj government has failed in all areas, corruption is everywhere, so people are fed up, they are waiting eagerly to vote them out.”