BJP workers shout slogans against Union Minister Pralhad Singh Patel in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, October 22: A day after Union Minister Bhupender Yadav was mobbed by angry party workers in Jabalpur, his colleague in the council of ministers the Centre Pralhad Singh Patel faced the anger of the BJP workers in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh. After releasing five lists with a total of 228 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP appears to have run into a battle within the party ranks.
In Jabalpur, the supporters of Sharad Jain who had lost narrowly in the 2018 Assembly election in Madhya Pradesh mobbed Yadav on Saturday after the BJP released the fifth list. Jain had lost to Vinay Saxena of the Congress with a narrow difference of just 578 votes. His supporters claim that Jain had the lost election because of the rebel factor within the party in the last election. Jain was denied ticket from Jabalpur North Assembly seat, as the party fielded Abhilash Pandey from the constituency.
Patel on the other hand was mobbed by the angry workers in Chhindwara on Sunday. After the release of earlier lists also, the BJP ranks grew restive over denial of tickets to aspirants as well as local satraps. The BJP denied tickets to 29 sitting MLAS in the fifth list which consisted of 92 candidates.
At the same time, the BJP has fielded score of candidates who are past the unofficial age ceiling of the party for the electoral politics in Madhya Pradesh. The likes of Jayant Malviya, 76, Maya Singh, 74, Sitasharan Sharma. 73, and others represent the old brigade in the saffron outfit who have been fielded in the election.
With rebellion gaining wind in the ranks of the BJP in the state, the party leaders now are faced with an additional burden to buy peace with the ‘angry birds’. Incidentally, the BJP is no stranger to rebellion as the saffron outfit’s experimentation to mix expediency with experiment has been met with successes and failures in the state elections.
While the BJP fielded almost 70 candidates for Karnataka Assembly election this year who were less than 50 years in the age, the saffron outfit was handed over disastrous outcomes as the party lost several seats solely because of the choice of the candidates. “If the BJP had not faced rebellion and the party leaders were united, the BJP would have been in Karnataka,” said a senior BJP functionary.
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