Bharatiya Janata Party MlA from lohaghat (Champawat district) Puran Singh Fartyal on Saturday accused the district in-charge and women and child welfare minister Rekha Arya of not having invited the local MlAs, including himself, at the Republic Day programme on Friday. He further alleged that the Minister was hobnobbing with the local Congress leaders while keeping the party MlAs at bay, a charge the minister firmly rejected. Notably, Arya had switched over to BJP from Congress a few months before the state’s Assembly election.
Firing a salvo at the minister, MlA Fartyal said that there are two BJP MlAs from Champawat district and none of them was invited for the programme. “However, some local Congress leaders were invited and the Minister courted them while leaving the BJP lawmakers out in the cold. It seems that the minister is still inclined towards the Congress, the party she left to join BJP a few months before the Assembly election,” he said. He further said that the minister is openly hobnobbing with the Champawat district panchayat chief who is connected to the Congress at the expense of the BJP leaders and workers. “I would not raise the issue with the party top brass though. let her do whatever she likes,” the MlA said.
Minister Arya rejected the allegation and said that the MlAs had given the programme a miss perhaps because of their other engagements.
Quizzed over the intraparty wrangling denting into the credibility of the state government and the ruling party, the state BJP president Ajay Bhatt sought to underplay the matter and said that such trifles do happen in a big party like theirs. “They are all working for the betterment of the people and the state. Ours is a big family. Such minor things should not be blown out of proportions,” he said.