A series of closed-door meetings of senior BJP leaders from Madhya Pradesh during the past few days sans Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has fuelled speculations, with the Congress taking a dig saying that work of the chief minister was being 'reviewed'.
Since the meetings were between leaders who were actively involved in the recently concluded assembly polls in West Bengal, there are also speculations that a strategy to launch a strong offensive in Bengal is being prepared. The MP BJP has, however, said these were just personal level courtesy meetings and have nothing to do with Madhya Pradesh or West Bengal politics.
The closed-door meetings were held between BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvarigya with MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Monday and Union minister Prahlad Patel on Wednesday in Bhopal and Delhi respectively. Mishra also met former MP BJP president Prabhat Jha on Wednesday.
Vijayvargiya, Mishra and Patel were actively involved in West Bengal polls. The meetings were fairly long.
Since the meetings were held just before and after a meeting of BJP state office bearers, conducted by national joint organising general Shiv Prakash in Bhopal on Tuesday, the speculations on the party forming a strategy for Bengal have also gained ground. Shiv Prakash was also in-charge of Bengal elections. The meeting in Bhopal was attended by CM Chouhan apart from Narottam Mishra and Medical Education Minister Vishwas Sarang.
Addressing the meeting on Tuesday, Shiv Prakash said there was strong resentment across the country due to post-poll violence in West Bengal. He said the party has to stand by those being harassed by the Mamta Banerjee government and the Trinamool Congress cadre and the families of those killed in the violence, sources said.
There was also talk that MP BJP leaders will leave for West Bengal after June 15 and an offensive will be launched against the TMC government there.
The Congress has taken a dig at the closed-door meetings, suggesting that these were held against CM Chouhan. Narendra Saluja, media coordinator of MP Congress chief Kamal Nath, tweeted after the meeting between Vijayvargiya and Mishra to say, “There was a review of Shivraj government's work in a closed-door meeting of an hour.”
After the meeting between Patel and Vijayvargiya, Saluja tweeted, “After an hour-long closed-door meeting with Narottam Mishra, now Kailash Vijayvargiya held review of Shivraj government's work and conspiracy of Damoh and need of improvement in processes, with Union minister Prahlad Patel in Delhi. All is not well in MP BJP.”
The mention of 'conspiracy in Damoh' comment was in reference to Prahlad Patel's tweet after BJP's bypoll defeat on Damoh assembly seat. Patel is a member of parliament from Damoh.
However, BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal, while talking to THE WEEK, said speculations by Congress did not matter and the meetings between senior leaders were mere courtesy and had nothing to do with either MP or West Bengal politics.
Agrawal said Vijayvargiya had been very busy with West Bengal polls and was now paying courtesy visits to various leaders as well as making social calls in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. As for meeting by Shiv Prakash, Agrawal said during the meeting, the senior leader apprised the MP office bearers of different levels about the socio-political situation in West Bengal and answered their queries.
