Rajasthan BJP leaders quit over tickets

Ticket distribution has led to factional tussles and other problems in the party over several seats in the state. Among them are Barmer where Lokendra Singh Kalvi could be sidelined; Pali, where Chandra Raj Singhvi is sulking over his candidature being overruled in favour of the party’s district president and corporator, Pushpa Jain; and Kota, where BJYM national vice-president Om Birla or Kota Mayor Suman Sringhi’s names are beingmentioned for breaking former minister Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi’s vice-like grip.

Speaking to The Indian Express, K L Meena, said: “If just four persons sit and decide who should contest and who should not, without consulting party colleagues and without taking into account the views of party workers, there is no point in my continuing on the election committee.”

As for quitting from the vice-presidentship, Meena said dishonest and disloyal persons of doubtful merit were being accorded importance in the party and he could not hold the position in such a situation.

Without naming former chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and former minister Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi, Meena alleged time and again attempts had been made by those in high positions to put him down in the party. They did this repeatedly for their selfish ends and in complete disregard of the damage this did to the party, he charged.

K L Meena is an influential leader of his community and his influence extends beyond his own area ofSawai Madhopur, where the BJP has given the ticket to Jaskaur Meena. K L Meena’s claim has been denied for the second time in a row. On the previous occasion, thousands of his supporters had demonstrated at the party office to protest against the party’s decision. Resentment in his community is said to have contributed partly to the BJP’s defeat in five constituencies.

In his letter to the party state president, he said workers from Sawai Madhopur, Kota, Alwar, Tonk, Dausa, Bharatpur, Bayana and Jaipur had told the election committee that K L Meena be consulted in allotment of tickets and that his own candidature be ensured. But, he said, he “was not consulted for any seat despite being a member of the election committee.”Satish Punia accused senior leaders Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi and Hari Shankar Bhabhra of “stabbing him in the back” and riding roughshod over the wishes of workers of the Yuva Morcha of the entire state.