Bhopal: The internal turmoil within Madhya Pradesh’s ruling BJP is out in the open, highlighted by a BJP MLA prostrating before a senior police officer in a plea for protection from the liquor mafia, another party MLA resigning in protest over the police’s “refusal” to register an FIR, and various legislators accusing the administration of apathy.
This comes less than a year after the party registered a spectacular victory in the state polls, winning 163 of 230 seats and demonstrating a robust organisational presence. The party also picked a surprise candidate as chief minister, Mohan Yadav, marking the end of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan era.
However, the BJP is now seen as struggling to placate disgruntled leaders taking public digs at the Yadav-led administration. Multiple BJP leaders ThePrint spoke to attributed this to the absence of a grievance redressal channel after Chouhan was shifted to the Centre.
“CM Mohan Yadav hasn’t been able to ensure coordination between the administration and MLAs,” said a senior BJP functionary to ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
The tussle also comes at a time when the BJP is in the process of restructuring its state unit with state president V.D. Sharma’s over four-year long tenure coming to an end.
“The party has chosen to look over senior leaders and get new faces. But there needs to be a way to ensure that they feel heard within the government and the party, which is currently missing,” another BJP leader told ThePrint.
According to party sources, Yadav has been advised to appoint leaders and functionaries as troubleshooters, but a decision on the same is yet to be taken.
“The challenges MLAs are facing are different in different regions, but the problem is that there has been a total collapse of communication within the government,” a second BJP leader said.
Speaking to ThePrint, V.D. Sharma said, “MLAs have been instructed to raise their grievances via internal party channels rather than airing them on public platforms.”
Party leaders cry foul
More than 10 days ago, a video of BJP’s Mauganj MLA Pradeep Patel had surfaced on social media, purportedly showing him prostrating before a senior police official. He had expressed fear for his life while raising concern over sale of liquor in his constituency.
Following this, Ajay Vishnoi, another party MLA from Patan, had taken to X in solidarity, stating: “You have raised the right issue, but what can one do? The entire government is bowing before the liquor mafia.”
Vishnoi, in a recent post, raised concerns about the BJP’s membership drive. He recounted receiving a call from a private company offering to help meet membership targets for a fee. Vishnoi questioned whether leaders might be using such tactics to inflate membership numbers and advance their own positions, all while dedicated party workers are being overlooked.
“We old workers can do nothing but regret this decline,” he wrote.
Before this incident, BJP’s Deori MLA Brijbihari Pateriya submitted his resignation to the Speaker after the police allegedly refused to file an FIR against a doctor accused of demanding bribes for issuing a death certificate related to a snakebite case.
A furious Pateriya had urged the police to register a case but on their alleged refusal, he sat outside the police station in protest and later sent in his resignation.
After his initial outburst, Pateriya regretted his resignation, but his act gained him sympathy from former minister and former Rehli MLA Gopal Bhargava, who said on X: “BJP government is working for the poor day and night. In such a government, be it police officers or doctors, who do not even listen to the MLA elected by the people, such working style will not be tolerated.”
While Pateriya chose to protest this way, three other BJP MLAs from Indore reached out to CM Yadav for a meeting, expressing their concerns about the local administration’s indifference to their issues, according to BJP sources. The CM is also the Indore district in-charge.
On 5 October, minister for urban development Kailash Vijayvargiya reportedly skipped a cabinet meeting convened by Yadav in Damoh’s Singrampur. A day later, while addressing a press briefing, Vijayvargiya remarked: “It is okay to lose body weight, but political weight should not be reduced. One can increase their body weight anytime.”
Public spats
Other incidents of infighting within the Madhya Pradesh BJP have also emerged. In September, three such incidents made news.
In Chhatarpur, Union minister Virendra Kumar Khatik was accused by former BJP MLA Manvendra Singh of appointing people with criminal background as his representatives in various departments. Singh was backed by three-time MLA Lalita Yadav who told reporters that being a minister, Khatik should use his representatives wisely.
In Raisen, BJP MLA Narendra Shivaji Patel reportedly got into an argument with BJP MP Darshan Singh Choudhary after the latter’s name was written before that of Patel’s on an invitation sent out by a private school.
Similarly, in Rewa, a public spat broke out between BJP MP Janardan Mishra, and Congress turncoat and now BJP leader Siddharth Tiwari over remarks against Tiwari’s grandfather and Congress leader Sriniwas Tiwari.
After each of these incidents, state president Sharma called the MLAs to the party headquarters in Bhopal and deterred them from publicly expressing their grievances, BJP leaders told ThePrint. But with Sharma’s tenure coming to an end, the dialogues with MLAs have hardly been effective, they added.
In July, state minister and BJP leader Nagar Singh Chouhan had threatened to resign after his forest ministry portfolio was taken away from him. Chouhan had alleged that the decision to withdraw the ministry from him was taken without keeping him in the loop.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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