BHOPAL: Cracks in the BJP in the Vindhya region of Madhya Pradesh have come out in the open with Ganesh Singh, four-time MP from the Satna Lok Sabha seat, issuing a warning to party workers who campaigned against him during the parliamentary polls.
Reacting to Singh’s warning, given during a public speech, the BJP MLA from Maihar seat in Satna district, Narayan Tripathi, who has been with the SP and the Congress in the past, said in a social media post that the MP had lost his mental balance. Tripathi also said the matter would be taken up with the party’s top leadership.
Singh, a powerful OBC leader from the Kurmi caste, who won the Satna seat for the fourth straight time, this time by a margin of 2.81 lakh-plus votes, addressed thanksgiving meetings of BJP workers in different Assembly segments on Sunday.
Addressing one such meeting in Nagod Assembly segment, he attacked BJP workers and leaders who, he alleged, had campaigned for the rival candidate.
“I know all those who worked for the rival party candidate despite being from the BJP, hence I am clearly telling such workers not to come across me even accidentally, as I might use words for them which won’t sound good. Betrayal of one’s own party in the elections will not be tolerated,” said Singh.
He also took a dig at party workers and leaders who played petty caste politics during the Lok Sabha polls. “If the party candidate wasn’t of your choice, you should have stayed home and not campaigned for him, but you instead openly campaigned for the rival party candidate,” he said.
As per BJP sources in Satna district, Singh’s verbal salvos were aimed at those party leaders, including Rampur-Baghelan MLA Vikram Singh, Maihar MLA Narayan Tripathi, and a former MLA from Satna, Shankarlal Tiwari, who are believed to have not campaigned for Ganesh Singh.
The sources added that some of these leaders had backed Congress candidate Rajaram Tripathi, who is of their caste.