The BJP has ruled out a change of guard in Madhya Pradesh. Party national general secretary and in-charge of the state Arun Jaitley on Sunday asserted that there were no plans to replace Chief Minister Babulal Gaur.Jaitley stated this at a core committee meeting of the party here, attended by former CM Uma Bharati, party seniors Sunderlal Patwa, Sumitra Mahajan and Gaur himself.Terming recent media reports about Gaur’s removal as ‘‘mere speculation’’, Jaitley said the party high command was satisfied with his government’s performance.‘‘I have not been able to attend to the party affairs here for the past three months due to elections in other states. It was time that a meeting was convened. The agenda of the meeting was basically to review the work done in the past few months and organisational restructuring,’’ Jaitley told reporters.Jaitley’s statement brought down the curtains on a fortnight-long political drama in Madhya Pradesh, which began with a controversial tea party thrown by Uma Bharati. Soon after, speculation gained momentum with reports claiming that the party high command had arrived at a consensus candidate for the Chief Minister’s post — party general secretary Shivraj Singh Chauhan.Jaitley also denied that legislators had faxed letters to New Delhi demanding Gaur’s replacement with Uma Bharati.On the recent criticism by former CM Sunderlal Patwa over the state of affairs in the party unit, Jaitley said Patwa was a respected leader and the party was accepting his scepticism in the right spirit.
