Disgruntlment among senior party leaders, many of whom have been denied tickets, has left the BJP in lurch in Madhya Pradesh. Some veteran leaders have pointed out that while party president Amit Shah had ruled out possibility of imposing any age bar for allocation of tickets in the state during a press conference in Bhopal, many such leaders had been sidelined and candidates, who had lost in previous elections, were being given tickets. State Public Health Engineering and Jail Minister Kusum Mehdele, 75, who returned empty-handed from Bhopal after the BJP’s last phase of ticket distribution, dropped a tweet bomb on Sunday questioning the party for applying “age criterion” in her case. “The candidate who lost by more than 12,000 votes from Pawai has been given ticket from Panna replacing the candidate (Mehdele) who won by more than 29,000 votes. Why? Is it the BJP of Pt Deendayal Upadhaya and Shyamaprasad Mukherjee,’’ the four-time legislator asked in the tweet addressed to Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar. Former agriculture minister, Ramkrishna Kusmaria, too, expressed displeasure after the party denied him a ticket from Rajnagar. Upset over being denied a ticket, Kusmaria has now filed nomination from Patharia and Damoh constituencies. Damoh is represented by state Finance Minister Jayant Malaiyya. READ | ‘Vyapam to be replaced’: Congress manifesto in MP focuses on agriculture, ‘BJP document is jumla patra’ In 2008, Kusmaria won from Patharia by a margin of 598 votes, while Malaiyya won by a margin of 171 votes from Damoh. While Malaiyya improved his margin to 4,953 in 2013 from the same constituency, Kusmaria lost from Rajnagar by 8,607 votes. Now, 76, Malaiyya sought a ticket from Rajnagar, but when the party did not oblige, he filed nominations from the two other constituencies. “I am actually helping the BJP’s cause because the party is certain to lose both (Patharia and Damoh). If they can field a losing candidate (Malaiyya), why did they ignore my claim? Especially, when there is no age criterion,’’ he told The Indian Express. He said the BJP also did “injustice” to former minister Sartaj Singh, who is now a candidate of the Congress from Hoshangabad. Former finance minister Raghavji, who filed nomination as an Independent candidate from the Shamshabad constituency, also told The Indian Express that he wanted a ticket for his daughter, Jyoti, and chose to rebel when the party did not consider her claim. Now in early 80s, Raghavji was denied ticket in 2013 after he was accused of sodomy by his servant. He said he wanted to teach the party a lesson because it gave ticket to a candidate who was previously with the Congress, but not his daughter who is a BJP leader.
