Rift within Madhya Pradesh unit of  BJP over COVID crisis

BHOPAL: Resentment is growing within the ranks of the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh over the government’s handling of the Covid-19 situation in the state.  

Two BJP lawmakers, a former minister, and two young leaders of the party have publicly expressed their disappointment over the handling of the Covid-19 situation in the state in recent days.

Narayan Tripathi, the BJP MLA from the Maihar seat of the Satna district recently wrote a letter to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, stating that the ‘tamasha’ of virtual meetings won’t address the grave situation, but a month-long total lock-down is urgently needed in the state.  He also urged the government to conduct door-to-door testing and expand the vaccination programme.

Just a few days prior to it, another MLA of the ruling party, ex-minister and Bhojpur legislator Surendra Patwa wrote to health minister Dr Prabhuram Chowdhary complaining about the state of hospitals in the state. Both, Patwa and Chowdhary are BJP legislators from the same Raisen district.

Another senior BJP leader and ex-minister Anup Mishra (nephew of Atal Bihari Vajpayee) too had recently attacked the government over the rampant black marketing of oxygen and Remdesivir.

“Oxygen and Remdesivir injections are being black-marketed. They are available either with middlemen or influential politicians, but not with the commoners, who need them,” Mishra had tweeted recently.  

Further, Monu Patel, the nephew of Union Minister Prahlad Patel, alleging that the entire system had collapsed and the authorities were hiding the real picture.