Differences in the Congress party could be witnessed once again in the Ratlam-Jhabua parliamentary constituency, where former PCC chief Kantilal Bhuria has been left to his destiny by the party leaders.
The Ratlam-Jhabua lok Sabha bypoll has been necessitated by the death of BJP's Dilip Singh Bhuria and the election is scheduled for November 21.
The party bigwigs are not willing to campaign for Bhuria and thus he is relying only on his own network in the constituency.
However, former Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and former leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Ajay Singh have visited the constituency once, while former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh is scheduled to address an election meeting once in the coming few days.
leader of the Opposition Satyadev Katare has not visited the constituency ill-health.
Party sources said that the differences of Bhuria with all the regional satraps continued from the time when he was PCC chief. There had been several issues related to ticket distribution and others and following this, no leader was ready to campaign for Bhuria. However, on the directives of the High Command, a few leaders are out for campaigning, but that too only upto completing the formalities.
Scindia had addressed three election meetings in the constituency on Saturday, but it was surprise to local Congress leaders when they found that the close confidant of Scindia Mahendra Singh Kalukheda, who represents Mungawali Assembly constituency of Ashok Nagar district, in the State Assembly, abstained from all the programmes. Kalukheda in the past never missed any programmes of Scindia.
Congress sources said that Kalukheda hails from Ratlam and has clout in the district. Once he had also represented Jaora Assembly constituency of Ratlam district.
Party sources claimed that Kalukheda was very much in Ratlam district on Saturday, but did not attend the programme of Scindia. When this correspondent tried to contact Kalukheda for his comment, he was not available on mobile phone.
The relations between Scindia and Bhuria are also well-known, but on the directives of the High Command, Scindia is in the field and making all-out efforts in favour of Bhuria.
When Bhuria was PCC chief, there had been a lot of verbal duel between them. In the last lok Sabha polls, Bhuria was defeated, but the party has once again pitted him. Out of three Assembly constituencies of Ratlam district, two are in possession of the BJP and one is represented by an independent, while in Jhabua district, all the five seats are in the possession of the BJP.