BHOPAL: A day after losing the Datia assembly by-election to the Congress by 6000-plus votes, the ruling BJP’s top brass in Madhya Pradesh, went into a huddle at the chief minister’s residence in Bhopal on Tuesday, to take immediate stock of the probable reasons that caused the poll debacle.
Besides, the state’s CM Dr Mohan Yadav, the state party president Hemant Khandelwal and other senior leaders, besides the six key ministers, who were assigned the charge of six different sectors in the Datia constituency during electioneering for the July 30 by-poll, were present at the meeting.
At the meeting, the party’s runner-up candidate Ashutosh Tiwari was also present. It is believed that he submitted to the state party’s top leaders audio and visual evidence which strongly suggested that a major part of the party’s local organisation in Datia (loyalists of ex-MLA and former home minister Narottam Mishra) sabotaged the party candidate’s poll prospects.
The state party president Hemant Khandelwal subsequently constituted a two-member fact-finding committee which will probe the reasons behind the poll debacle. The two-member state BJP panel will have on board, state party general secretary Gaurav Ranadive and senior leader Ambaram Karada.
The committee will hold discussion with the party office bearers who were part of the party’s by-poll management and senior leaders associated with the electioneering in the northern MP seat. Based on the discussions, the reasons for the party’s by-poll defeat will be identified and analysed. The committee will subsequently submit it’s report summing up the findings to the state BJP chief Hemant Khandelwal.
It, however, remains to be seen as to how the two members, who have possibly never contested any major election, succeed in figuring out the causes behind the by-poll debacle.
Both the members of the probe panel hail from Malwa (western MP) region, while the by-poll was held in the northern MP region. While Gaurav Ranadive was formerly the Indore city unit chief of the party, Ambaram Karada has been the Shajapur district party unit’s chief.
Based on the fact-finding report of the committee, the party will act in the matter, particularly against those who are found to have sabotaged the party’s poll prospects, by helping the Congress winning candidate Ghanshyam Singh.
As per informed sources within the state BJP, the dissolution of the entire local party organization (majority of them being ex-minister Narottam Mishra’s loyalists who had resigned from their posts following denial of by-poll ticket to Mishra) cannot be ruled in the coming days.
As for the political future of former home and health minister Narottam Mishra, the party’s national leadership will take a call, based on the findings of the probe committee, shared by the state unit.
Two times former MLA and Congress candidate Kunwar Ghanshyam Singh had defeated BJP’s first-time candidate Ashutosh Tiwari 6016 votes in a triangular contest, which saw Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) nominee Damodar Singh Yadav finish third with 22,000 plus votes.
The July 30 by-election was necessitated by the disqualification of sitting Congress MLA and 2023 winner Rajendra Bharti, following three years imprisonment to him awarded by a Delhi special court, after conviction in a bank fraud case.