BHOPAL: The ruling BJP in bypoll bound Jobat constituency in Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur district is faced with a rebellion in its ranks after the entry of ex-Congress MLA Sulochana Rawat and her son Vishal into the party.
Irked over the mother-son duo’s inclusion in the party, many local BJP functionaries in Jobat have offered to resign from their posts.
Two other leaders have taken nomination forms for the October 30 bypoll to contest as rebels if the BJP fielded either Sulochana or her son from the constituency, which has largely been a Congress bastion.
Former Jobat Nagar Parishad chairman Dipak Chouhan and Alirajpur district president of the party’s youth wing Abhijit Dawar are in no mood to accept the mother-son duo in the party and have announced to fight the by-polls as rebels, if the party gives ticket to either of the Rawats.
Just a day after the mother-son duo joined the BJP in Bhopal on Sunday, many local BJP functionaries had opposed the entry of the two.
At least nine local functionaries while offering to resign from their party posts in the presence of MP minister Om Prakash Sakhlecha in Jobat on Monday, made it clear that they would oppose any move by the party to field anyone else from outside Alirajpur district.
Most of those opposing the Rawats are considered loyalists of ex-BJP MLA Madhosingh Dawar, who was till recently seen as the front-runner for the poll ticket.
The tribal reserved Jobat seat has been won by the Congress 11 times in the past, out of which the powerful Rawat family has won nine times.
No surprise in Congress pick in candidates
In the opposition camp, the Congress on expected lines declared Alirajpur district party president Mahesh Patel as its candidate for the Jobat bypoll.
Kalpana Verma was nominated for Raigaon-SC Assembly bypoll.
Party veteran and three-time former MLA Raj Narayan Singh Dhurni would be the candidate for the Khandwa-Burhanpur Lok Sabha seat bypoll.