BHOPAL: There is near exodus from BJP to join the Congress. Among them who are leaving BJP include sitting MLAs and important party leaders. Significantly those who are leaving are listing two factors – rampant corruption and being ignored because of the preference being given to Scindia followers. In a blow to the ruling BJP ahead of assembly elections, MLA from Kolaras seat Virendra Raghuvanshi resigned from the party – an indication of the strife in the saffron camp due to influx of team Scindia.
In a letter to state BJP chief VD Sharma the two-time MLA has said that he felt ignored in the party in the last three and a half years. “In Gwalior-Chambal division, the party’s core workers like me were being ignored by the newly arrived BJP members though we worked with dedication for BJP in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls” he wrote.
Raghuvanshi had won Kolaras assembly seat in Shivpuri district by 720 votes in 2018. He has resigned from primary membership and the party state working committee where he was a special invitee.
Raghuvanshi’s resignation letter makes direct allegations against Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and his loyalists, many of whom are cabinet ministers in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. Talking to local media persons, he alleged that those who joined BJP with Scindia, “ministers and lieutenants alike are steeped in corruption”.
He says that he repeatedly informed CM Chouhan and the state BJP leadership that Scindia’s aides were not letting him work in his constituency and that corrupt officials were being posted in Kolaras to “thwart all development works and harass him and his supporters” but no one listened to him.
“Ministers and officials are submerged in corruption” Raghuvanshi alleged. “The minister in-charge of Shivpuri rationalised corruption in my constituency by saying that bribes are like ‘prasad’ that has to be offered in the temple. BJP grassroot leaders and workers are not heard any longer” he wrote.
Scindia loyalist Mahendra Singh Sisodia, the panchayat minister is in-charge of Shivpuri district. Raghuvanshi’s letter points out that Scindia claimed he brought down the Congress government in March 2020 because farm loans were not being waived, “But after the formation of the BJP government, Scindia hasn’t even spoken of the loan waiver scheme”. He said “in BJP meetings, there is no discussion for the benefit of the state, but corrupt ministers are protected, I feel suffocated and hurt in such an environment. Please accept my resignation”. He wrote.
To reporters, Raghuvanshi said that during a recent meeting of the district core committee, he had asked “why the CM is under pressure”. I said that I am not allowed to work. The CM didn’t give me even five minutes” he alleged, adding that he had helped KK Yadav win the 2019 Lok Sabha polls (against Scindia) “Maybe that was my mistake” he said.
Before joining BJP in 2014, Raghuvanshi was the Congress candidate from Shivpuri assembly constituency in 2007 bypoll (which he won) and the 2008 and 213 assembly elections.
Not just Raghuvanshi, many other BJP leaders from Gwalior-Chambal region have recently switched to the Congress. In June, BJP’s Shivpuri vice-president Rakesh Gupta – once a Scindia supporter – returned to the Congress. Baijnath Yadav, another BJP leader, rejoined Congress.
Another heavyweight and former MLA Girija Shankar Sharma hailing from Narmadapuram district has also resigned from the BJP. Sharma, besides being himself an influential leader also comes from a family of powerful leaders. Sharma won the Hoshangabad assembly seat in 2008 against Congress’ Vijay Dubey by a margin of 25,000 votes. He is also the brother of two times MLA from the same seat and former speaker of the state assembly Sithasharan Sharma.
Speaking to reporters, the former MLA said that he has met Congress president KalmalNath once and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh also. “But nothing has progressed in that”, Meanwhile sources in the state Congress said that BJP’s former MLA from Badnawar assembly seat Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat could join the Congress. Shekhawat won the Badnawar assembly seat in 2013 against Congress’ Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon who was one of the 22 Congress MLAS who quit he party and followed Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to the BJP . In the November 2020 bypolls, Rajwardhan Singh Dattigaon contested on a BJP ticket and retained the seat. In a clean swap, now Bhawar Singh Shekhawat could join the Congress party fearing that BJP will again field new entrant Rajwardhan Singh Dattigaon. (IPA Service)
By L S Herdenia