Chinks have already started to appear in the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh within hours of long-awaited expansion of Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet. Former chief minister and firebrand leader Uma Bharti and supporters of at least two MLAs on Thursday expressed their displeasure over the composition of the cabinet.
Bharti was reported to say in Lucknow that caste equations were imbalanced in the expanded cabinet in Madhya Pradesh. She is also said to have expressed displeasure that her suggestions had been ignored during the expansion process and that was an insult to those who she was associated with.
She later tweeted to confirm that she had sent messages to central and Madhya Pradesh party leaders about the cabinet expansion, but added that she spoke about social balances in the cabinet.
"My message did not have anything about my associates being ignored. All BJP workers are mine. I am happy at Jyotiraditya Scindia joining the BJP, Congress getting demolished in MP and Shivraj Singh Chouhan becoming the CM. BJP will win all 24 by-polls in the state," Bharti said in the tweet.
Instrumental in bringing BJP to power after toppling 10-year rule of Digvijaya Singh in 2003 and becoming chief minister of the state for six months, Bharti has currently been sidelined from MP politics. She was not allowed to contest Lok Sabha elections of 2014 from Madhya Pradesh and even now local leaders are wary of her political activities in the state.
Bharti did not contest the 2019 LS polls, but has already announced the intention to do so in the 2024 elections. She has a large following in the state, especially in the Bundelkhand region.
Bharti is said to have decided to talk to BJP state president Vishnu Dutt Sharma, organising general secretary Suhas Bhagat and state in-charge Vinay Sahasrabuddhe to consider amendment of the cabinet list, sources added.
Meanwhile, a supporter of Indore-2 MLA Ramesh Mendola tried to immolate self before the party office in Indore on Thursday afternoon to protest non-inclusion of Mendola in the cabinet. Mendola, a close confidante of BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, was among the frontrunners for the post of a cabinet minister, but finally his name was not included.
Supporters of Mandsaur MLA Yashpal Singh Sisodia staged a sit-in at his hometown demanding his inclusion in the cabinet.
This is also been looked upon as a political defeat for Vijayvargiya, who was considered a strong opponent of Scindia right since the days the latter was in the Congress. Vijayvargiya had contested the MP Cricket Association elections against Scindia earlier and lost.
In the third incident, a section of supporters of Mandsaur MLA Yashpal Singh Sisodia staged a sit-in at his hometown after the cabinet expansion, to demand the MLA's inclusion in the cabinet.
Ex-minister Harishankar Khatik, who was among a few people who visited the BJP headquarters in Bhopal on Thursday morning, was quoted saying that eligible people were made ministers, though the final decision was of the organisation.
Ex-minister Sanjay Pathak—mining baron and among the richest MLAs in MP—said that it was important to give due respect to Scindia supporters and ex-Congress MLAs who were instrumental in forming the BJP government in the state .
“We can't ask to be made ministers at their cost,” he said.
