In MP, discontent in BJP, Congress ranks hits a flashpoint over candidate lists

BJP

Jabalpur North

Angry supporters of BJP leader Sharad Jain created a ruckus at the party office in Jabalpur Saturday, where they cornered Union minister Bhupender Yadav. The agitated BJP workers refused to listen to Yadav and when a security guard tried to intervene, he was quickly overpowered and assaulted. Local police have registered an FIR over the incident and three persons were arrested.

Jain won the Jabalpur North seat in 2003, 2008 and 2013, but lost to the Congress’s Vinay Kumar Saxena in 2018 by only 578 votes. His supporters were expecting Jain to get a ticket again but the party has named Abhilash Pandey instead.

A BJP leader from Jabalpur said, “It should not have gotten out of control but it is their right to protest. The party should give tickets to those who do well in surveys. We don’t know what they (state leadership) are thinking.”

Jabalpur: BJP workers protest at the BJP divisional office in the presence of Union Minister Bhupender Yadav against the ticket distribution ahead of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, in Jabalpur, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. (PTI Photo)

Gwalior East

On Sunday, supporters of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s loyalist and ex-MLA Munnalal Goyal lay down in front of Scindia’s car in Gwalior to protest the BJP’s decision to field Maya Singh from the seat.

In 2018, Goyal won the seat as a Congress candidate by a margin of 17,819 votes. But after defecting to the BJP, he then lost the ensuing bypoll to the Congress’s Satish Singh Sikarwar by 8,555 votes.

A Goyal supporter said, “No one else can win that seat. Somebody who is unable to even walk has been made the candidate there. We are serving the seat to the Congress on a platter. So, we are pained.”

Jabalpur: BJP workers protest at the BJP divisional office against the ticket distribution ahead of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, in Jabalpur, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. (PTI Photo)

Churai

BJP leader Ramesh Dubey’s supporters protested at the BJP district office after Lakhan Verma was given a ticket from Churai in the Chhindwara district. The angry crowd raised slogans against Union minister Prahlad Patel and tried to resign enmasse.

Dubey had won the 2013 election in former Congress CM Kamal Nath’s bastion by a margin of 13,631 votes.

This was a highly sought after seat as apart from Dubey, former Cabinet minister Chaudhary Chandrabhan Singh was also involved in the race.

Nagod

The saffron party gave its old hand and sitting MLA Nagendra Singh a ticket from the Nagod Assembly seat in Satna. This was met with angry protests by supporters of Gaganendra Pratap Singh, who contested and lost the elections in 2013. His supporters have been angry that young leaders were not given a chance with the party avoiding taking risks in a closely contested battle.

“Senior leadership, including the district president, are now cooling down the tempers. They are angry over giving a ticket to an 80-year-old who has contested six times,” said a party leader.

Raigaon

Resentment has been brewing here in the BJP over the decision to field Pratima Bagri in this Schedule Caste (SC)-reserved seat, following which Pushparaj Bagri, former vice president of the district panchayat and son of former minister Jugul Kishore Bagri, resigned from the party.

Pushparaj wrote on Facebook that he was “not given importance by the party” and could not “understand the party’s customs and policies”.

Pushparaj contested the election from Raigaon in 2013 but lost to the BSP’s Usha Choudhary. In 2018, his father contested and won the seat. But Pushparaj has been miffed with the party after he was overlooked for the bypoll necessitated by his father’s death in 2021. Pratima was fielded in the bypoll but lost by 12,290 votes.

State secretary Rajneesh Agrawal told The Indian Express that BJP leaders are actively “troubleshooting” the simmering discontent. “Those who are disgruntled, we are speaking to them. Our organisation will successfully talk to the disgruntled leaders and they will fight for the party,” he said.

Congress

Khategaon

Former minister Deepak Joshi, who switched to the Congress from the BJP about five months ago, was given a ticket from Khategaon, where half a dozen party leaders were eyeing the seat.

Joshi, the son of senior BJP leader and former CM Kailash Joshi, was met with angry protests while he was out campaigning in Khategaon as party workers rushed towards him waving black flags.

Several party leaders from Khategaon have quit over “Joshi being parachuted into their constituency” and have demanded that a local candidate be fielded in his place, a party worker said.

Notable among them was state Congress committee member Lakshminarayan Bandawala, who resigned saying the “whole organisation is against Deepak Joshi”.

Bhopal: Congress workers stage a protest against the distribution of ticket for Badnagar state assembly constituency ahead of the assembly election, at the residence of state Congress president Kamal Nath, in Bhopal, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. (PTI Photo)

Sewda

Damodar Singh Yadav, the president of the party’s state OBC unit, resigned after he lost out to Ghanshyam Singh, a member of former CM Digvijaya Singh’s camp. After the announcement, his supporters burnt effigies of Digvijaya and his son Jaivardhan in Bhopal on Saturday.

Yadav will now contest the seat on the Azad Samaj Party’s ticket. He wrote in his resignation letter that leaders from the backward classes were given only 55 tickets despite their numerically large population. Taking a jibe at Digvijaya, he stated, “A feudal leader wants to make his incompetent son the CM and, under his influence and pressure, Kamal Nath is ruining the party by taking wrong decisions.”

Guna

In Digvijaya’s stronghold, his son Jaivardhan’s car was surrounded by irate party workers over Pankaj Kaneria bagging the ticket. Three senior leaders from the district were vying for the ticket with their supporters demanding a local leader be named instead.

Jaivardhan, while speaking to the media, said he was trying to speak to disgruntled party workers and that “it is their right to demand tickets”.

Bhopal: Congress workers stage a protest against the distribution of ticket for Badnagar state assembly constituency ahead of the state assembly election, at the residence of party’s state president Kamal Nath, in Bhopal, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. (PTI Photo)

Gotegaon

In Kamal Nath’s Chhindwara bastion, a flip-flop over the seat allotment angered supporters of Shekhar Chaudhary, who was initially announced as a candidate from Gotegaon, replacing former Speaker N P Prajapati.

“The seat flip-flop was a course correction because Prajapati could have damaged the (party’s) prospects. We are talking to Shekhar and will give him big responsibility in the organisation,” said a Congress leader.

Shujalpur

The party’s Shajapur district president Yogendra Singh and his supporters protested in Bhopal over losing out to Ramveer Singh Sikarwar.

Singh’s supporters burnt effigies of Sikarwar and shouted slogans against him. In 2018, Sikarwar contested and lost to sitting BJP MLA and education minister Inder Singh Parmar by 5,600 votes.

Singh, who holds influence in over 100 villages in the constituency, had fancied his chances this time and said the “ticket distribution was wrong.”

Burhanpur

While Independent MLA Surendra Singh Shera’s supporters celebrated his nomination from Burhanpur on the Congress ticket with firecrackers, several Congress party workers burnt effigies to protest the absence of a Muslim candidate in a seat with a sizeable population of the community.

One disgruntled party worker said, “He is not a Congress leader. He worked to bring us down in 2018. Why was he given a ticket? They say that Surendra played a major role in Bharat Jodo Yatra, this is totally false.”

Pawai

Pawai candidate Mukesh Nayak is facing opposition in the Panna district. Party workers raised slogans against Nayak at the state Congress office in Bhopal on Friday.

“Nayak doesn’t have a good reputation in our area. We need an OBC candidate and they should be given a chance over outsiders,” a party worker said.

Nayak was first elected from Pawai in 1993. He also won the seat in 2013, but lost to the BJP’s Prahlad Lodhi in 2018.

Congress state vice-president J P Dhanopia told The Indian Express, “There is anger, it is natural. Let them air it… There will be many people who think they can win from winnable seats. Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh are speaking to them on the phone and they are cooling their tempers. Once we form the government, the disgruntled leaders will come back smiling.