Madhya Pradesh: 700 BJP workers quit party in Jabalpur against CAA, NPR, NRC 

The voice of dissent is growing louder within Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizenship (NRC) and Nation Population Register (NPR). As many as 700 party workers resigned en masse from the party in Jabalpur on Thursday.

Workers, as well as senior functionaries of the district BJP including the district head and former chancellors, left the party to register their disappointment against the CAA, the NRC and the NPR. All workers belonged to the minority wing of the BJP.

“We have resigned en masse from the party in public interest. The anger against the controversial Bill has been growing among the citizens with each passing day. So, it’s our duty to stand by them and democracy is all about public voice,” said Shafique Hira, Jabalpur BJP head.

The Saffron Party, however, denied their membership to brush aside their resignation. In reply to the party, the resigned workers showed their primary membership certificate to the media on Friday.

Two days ago, sitting BJP MLA from Maihar assembly seat Narayan Tripathi also opposed the controversial law. “The BJP should either follow Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution or ‘tear and throw it away’, as it is clear that the nation cannot be divided on religious lines,” he said.

“There is civil war-like situation in every street, which is fatal for our country. We cannot imagine development in civil war-like situation. I opposed it (CAA) when I became aware of such a situation. Not only in my constituency Maihar, but similar situation prevails in other places. The country cannot be divided on the basis of religion,” the Maihar MLA said while speaking to reporters.

A fortnight ago, 170 BJP Minority Cell workers from Khargone and around 50 workers from Bhopal resigned en masse in protest against the controversial law. In addition to that, around 10 districts of the state have been witnessing indefinite strike against the bill including tribal-dominated Khargone and Barwani.

Despite attempts, the state BJP Minority Cell chief Sanawar Patel could not be contacted.

The BJP has around 550 office bearers of Minority Cell in Madhya Pradesh including state head, secretary, district heads and so on. “Of them, more than 350 workers have left the party,” said former party leader Jawed Baig.

He further said, “The party has around 12,000-15,000 workers in the state, however, 70% of the workers have left the party till now in protest against the bill. If it continues, soon, the BJP will be left with no Muslim workers in MP.”