After the Congress showed its united face in Madhya Pradesh, it is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is facing factionalism. Earlier, only the Congress faced differences among it leaders, but the BJP leaders are leaving no stone unturned in seeking tickets and lobbying for not allowing tickets to the sitting MlAs.
There had been precedence that the locals used to oppose party ticket to the sitting MlAs, but only at the organisation level, but the situation has gone far away this time. In opposition to the party legislators, the local leaders are taking out rallies and gathering at the party’s State headquarters.
On Monday, BJP workers from Narsingarh, Vidisha, Patharia, Piparia, Susner and Agar constituencies gathered at the State BJP headquarters and openly registered their protests against the sitting MlAs. They demanded party ticket to somebody else, otherwise threatened they would not work for the party.
Besides opposition in Gohad, Hoshantgabad, Betul and several parts of Indore, the sitting MlAs in Bhopal are also facing problems. There are a number of ticket claimants from the constituencies that are represented by Dhruv Narayan Singh in Central and Jitendra Daga in Huzur.
In Indore, the proposed visit of BJP national president Rajnath Singh also caused trouble among the local leaders. He was to attend the chunari yatra of Sudarshan Gupta.
This posed a clear divide among the supporters of Sumitra Mahajan and Kailash Vijayvargiya. The supporters of Vijayvargiya openly opposed the event of Sudarshan and had written to Rajnath not to come to Indore for the particular event.
In past 10 years, the BJP MlAs are facing strong anti-incumbency in their constituencies. They are in troubled waters as the condition of roads and provision of drinking water in the constituencies are quite poor.
Besides, Urban Administration and Development (UAD) Minister Babulal Gaur had recently created flutter in his party by saying that tickets should be denied to at least 50 to 60 sitting MlAs, if the BJP wants to make hat trick in November polls.