Gaur takes letter war to Uma camp

AS he battles to save his chair, Chief Minister Babulal Gaur seems to have learnt the letter-writing skills of his challenger, Uma Bharati, ...

AS he battles to save his chair, Chief Minister Babulal Gaur seems to have learnt the letter-writing skills of his challenger, Uma Bharati, but unlike the sadhvi, seems to have got the timing right.

A week before the party leadership begins an exercise to decide his fate, his letter to Tara Joshi, wife of BJP state unit in charge Kailash Joshi, listing the ‘‘works’’ he did at her instance, has embarrassed the Uma camp. Tara Joshi’s son Deepak Joshi is a leading rebel MLA and she had criticised Gaur in public.

Among the ‘‘works’’ Tara Joshi asked Gaur to do, according to the letter, are regularising the service of her son-in-law Om Prakash Sharma.

Story continues below this ad

Deepak, it may be mentioned, is on record saying that he started rooting for Uma after Gaur ‘‘insulted’’ his mother by making her wait outside his chamber for hours and not doing the ‘‘works’’ she requested him to do. Talking to The Indian Express, Deepak said, ‘‘He (Gaur) should not have leaked the letter.’’ On the allegations, he said, ‘‘We will take up the matter at the party level.’’

Former Union minister Prahlad Patel, leading the ‘‘remove-Gaur’’ campaign in Uma’s absence, said, ‘‘We will wait for Gaur to come clean on why he wrote such a letter.’’

Coming as it does a couple of days after national general secretary Sanjay Joshi visited Bhopal to gauge the mood of the MLAs and office-bearers, the letter is one more instance of Gaur having taken the battle to the enemy’s camp.

‘Spying’ charge on Gaur

Two policemen deployed outside the house of Water Resources Minister Anup Mishra, a dissident minister, have been withdrawn after they were spotted by the minister’s staff. The dissidents have accused Babulal Gaur of “spying” on them. The government has denied the charge. —-ENS