Senior BJP leaders including founder member and ex-MLA Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat, Kolaras MLA Virendra Raghuwanshi and prominent figure from Bundelkhand region Chandrabhushan Singh Bundela alias Guddu Raja, joined the Congress on Saturday, indicating a deep-seated internal dissent in the ruling party.
These leaders and seven others from various districts joined the grand old party in presence of MP Congress chief Kamal Nath and in-charge general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala.
There are indications that the three prominent leaders will be pitted against ministers from the Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet in the upcoming assembly polls, sources said.
The Congress seems to be working on a strategy to corner the state ministers during the polls by pitting powerful candidates against them, so that these ministers get bound to the respective constituencies and the focus shifts to one-to-one fights, sources added.
An indication of this strategy came during the event of leaders switching sides as Surjewala said that last time (2018) 13 ministers of Shivraj cabinet had lost but this time the figure will reverse and 31 ministers will lose the polls.
Who are the new leaders in Congress camp?
Shekhawat is a two-time former MLA and a very prominent name in the Madhya Pradesh BJP circle with close connections to Jan Sangh and RSS. He has been decrying neglect of ‘original BJP workers’ and is likely to contest against Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon – the industrial policy and investment promotion minister in Chouhan cabinet – who had switched to BJP from Congress in March 2020 along with Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Shekhawat, who as a BJP candidate had lost to Dattigaon in 2018 assembly polls, has been attacking Dattigaon for rampant corruption and alleged that the minister had grabbed lands, was involved in illegal mining and ran gambling dens. Shekhawat is also upset as a BJP leader who fought independently in 2018 polls causing his loss, was taken back into the party fold before the 2020 by-polls where Dattigaon got a BJP ticket.
In a press conference after joining the Congress, Shekhawat said that loot and corruption had reached zenith after Scindia and his supporters joined the BJP. “The people who raised BJP in the state are now getting neglected and the original party workers are the saddest people now,” he said.
Virendra Raghuwanshi, who resigned from BJP after accusing Scindia-supporter minister Pradhuman Singh Tomar and Mahendra Singh Sisodia of corruption and harassment, is likely to contest from the Shivpuri seat against state sports and youth welfare minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia. Raghuwanshi is a native of Shivpuri, while Yashodhara Raje stays in Gwalior though she has repeatedly won from Shivpuri and is facing local opposition this time.
Bundela, better known by his nickname Guddu Raja, is the son of two-time Congress member of parliament from Jhansi, Sujan Singh Bundela and the family wields a lot of influence in the crucial Bundelkhand region. There are indications of him contesting against powerful minister Bhupendra Singh from the Khurai seat in Sagar district. He had earlier contested on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket from Lalitpur in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh but had lost. On Saturday, Bundela came to Bhopal to join Congress with a huge convoy, displaying his political power.
Others who joined Congress leaving the BJP and other parties include Chhedilal Pande and Shivam Pande from Katni, Arvind Dhakad from Shivpuri, Anshu Raghuwanshi from Guna (daughter of a former MLA from Congress Virendra Raghuwanshi who had shifted to BJP), Keshav Yadav of Bhind, Ashish Agrawal (nephew of former state home minister of BJP Umashankar Gupta) and Mahendra Pratap Singh of Narmadapuram.
Speaking at the event, Kamal Nath attacked the BJP government in the state on the issue of corruption saying every person in Madhya Pradesh was either a victim or witness of the rampant corrupt activities. The BJP government has developed a system where work is done only after money is paid, Nath said, adding that the newly inducted leaders and workers were saviours of the future of Madhya Pradesh.
