BHOPAL: After declaring candidates for most assembly seats for the November 17 elections in Madhya Pradesh, the ruling BJP and opposition Congress faced rebellion on many seats.
A few hours after the ruling party released its fifth list of 92 candidates on Saturday evening, Union minister and party’s assembly polls in-charge for MP, Bhupendra Yadav, was heckled by supporters of ex-minister Sharad Jain and local party leader Dhiraj Pateria at the party’s divisional office in Jabalpur.
The supporters also accused state BJP chief VD Sharma of fielding his loyalist and ex-state BJYM chief Abhilash Pandey (a rank outsider) from Jabalpur-North seat to help sitting Congress MLA Vinay Saxena win the polls.
“Abhilash Pandey is an outsider; we’re ready to work only for a local candidate. We lost the mayoral polls last year, as the ticket was then sold by local MP Rakesh Singh. Now an outsider is being fielded,” said a local BJP leader.
Amid the ruckus, when Yadav’s PSO tried to intervene and escort the union minister away, the supporters of the disgruntled BJP leaders assaulted the PSO, forcing him to try to pull out his service pistol. Three BJP workers were detained by the local police and an FIR was lodged.
Former cabinet minister and sitting BJP MLA Sharad Jain had lost his Jabalpur North seat in 2018 polls to Congress’ Vinay Saxena by just around 600 votes, while the third-placed BJP rebel Dhiraj Pateria polled around 30,000 votes. But Jain and Pateria have now struck a common cause against fielding Abhilash Pandey from the same seat.
The violent protest by disgruntled BJP workers at the party office in Jabalpur assumes significance as the city is the home to the wives of both national BJP president JP Nadda and state party chief VD Sharma.
Meanwhile, protests by BJP workers in the wake of the fifth list of candidates being released have been reported from Nagod and Raigaon seats of Satna district, by supporters of ex-home minister Umashankar Gupta in Bhopal South West seat, and Chaurai seat of Chhindwara district.
In Gwalior, ex-MLA Munnalal Goyal’s supporters lay down in front of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s official vehicle over fielding veteran BJP politician Maya Singh from Gwalior-East seat.
Former minister and three-time former MLA Ranjana Baghel accused the party’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya of denying her a ticket from the Manawar seat of Dhar district.
A repeat of 2018