Even as the political crisis in Rajasthan looms, the defection-ridden Madhya Pradesh Congress got another big blow on Sunday as Pradyumna Singh Lodhi, party MLA from Bada Malhara constituency in Chhatarpur district resigned from his seat and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Congress now has only 91 MLAs left in the house of 230 with 23 of its MLAs resigning. This will mean that now by-polls will be held for 25 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, increasing its importance that much. Two seats are vacant on count of demise of the MLAs there.
Lodhi, 52, a first-time MLA who was earlier in BJP and had joined Congress ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls, said that he took the decision keeping in mind the development of his constituency and the backward Bundelkhand region that it falls in.
Speaking after joining the BJP in presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and BJP state president Vishnu Dutt Sharma, Lodhi said that when he presented an irrigation plan for his constituency before the CM two days ago, it was immediately approved.
Chouhan termed it as ‘ghar-wapsi’ for Lodhi and said that the confidence he has shown in BJP and the sacrifice he has made by resigning membership of the house will be repaid with development he desired.
Earlier, Lodhi visited ex-chief minister Uma Bharti at her Bhopal home and then met Chouhan and Sharma at CM House. He joined BJP at a function at the party headquarters later in afternoon.
Bada Malhara was Uma Bharti’s constituency when she was the chief minister of MP. She plays an important role in the politics of Bundelkhand region. It may be mentioned that Bharti had expressed resentment at social imbalance in cabinet expansion earlier this month. Lodhi comes from the same community as Bharti.
It is being speculated that Lodhi might be offered a cabinet berth, though when Chouhan was queried on this issue, he said that it is a privilege of the chief minister as to who will be included in the cabinet.
Political analyst Manish Dixit said that while Lodhi had returned to his home party that he had left after being denied a ticket in 2018 Assembly polls, this is a big failure on part of the Congress in not being able to keep its flock together even after such a big upset in March.
‘In future foreign corporate with purchase governments’
Meanwhile, a stung Congress has said that Lodhi’s resignation was part of the politics of ‘sale-purchase’ that the BJP is playing in the entire country. Vice-chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Congress media cell, Bhupendra Gupta, while speaking to THE WEEK, said that this is a disturbing situation where a political party is purchasing MLAs to topple governments.
“When a pandemic is raging and over 15,000 people have died, BJP is playing power games. At present they are purchasing governments with help of Indian corporate, then foreign corporate will purchase governments. The country is being pushed back to slavery. This is the time for the citizens of India to think as to what kind of democracy it wants—that of simple, true and transparent and struggling people or goonda raj where anyone could be sold or purchased. In future, these people may even resort to murder to grab power. Kill two MLAs and change the government. Should democracy go in this direction?” Gupta said.
As for Lodhi’s decision, Gupta said that it looks too innocent on his part to say that he was changing sides for Bundelkhand’s development, when he himself is a witness to the fact that BJP government did nothing for the region in its 15-year rule and rather siphoned off the funds of Bundelkhand package.
