BHOPAL: Former Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra's decision to campaign for BJP candidate Ashutosh Tiwari despite being denied a ticket has not stopped the Congress from seeking to exploit discontent among his supporters ahead of the Datia by-election.
Two-time former Datia MLA and Congress candidate for the July 30 bypoll, Kunwar Ghanshyam Singh, has claimed that nearly half of the BJP workers loyal to Mishra have decided to back him.
"I'm getting phone calls from those close to him (Mishra) who are telling me that denial of a BJP ticket to their leader amounts to a major disrespect to their leader. They have told me that they will support me in the by-election," Ghanshyam Singh claimed.
"Their leader (Mishra) may have said that he will travel to the nook and cranny of the constituency for getting support for the debutant BJP candidate, but even he knows what his supporters and voters will do, when he is not the candidate himself. The insult to him has been further worsened by keeping him on the 16th slot among the star BJP campaigners for the by-election," he added.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Phool Singh Baraiya, a second-term legislator from the adjoining Bhander constituency who has often criticised upper castes, particularly Brahmins, including Mishra, has now expressed sympathy for the former minister.
"Narottam Mishra was a contender for CM's post, the BJP committed the political murder of a possible Brahmin CM. He is the third such Brahmin leader, whose political assassination has been committed by the BJP. In the past similar acts have been done with ex-ministers Anup Mishra and Gopal Bhargava, who too have been in the race for becoming MP CM," Baraiya said at Ghanshyam Singh's nomination rally on Monday.
The Congress leaders' sudden show of sympathy for Mishra — whom the party had earlier accused of targeting political opponents in Datia — comes amid the belief that Brahmins, who account for around 55% of the constituency's 60,000 upper-caste voters, could play a decisive role in the by-election.
While the Congress is seeking to benefit from discontent among Mishra's supporters, political circles in Datia are also abuzz with speculation over possible internal sabotage of the Congress campaign by supporters of Brahmin leader Abdhesh Nayak.
A former vice-chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Textbook Corporation, Nayak comes from a long RSS-BJP background. He quit the BJP and joined the Congress ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections following prolonged differences with Narottam Mishra.
He was initially declared the Congress candidate from Datia in the 2023 Assembly polls, but following protests by party workers, former MLA Rajendra Bharti was fielded instead and went on to win by more than 7,700 votes.
Former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh was reportedly instrumental in changing the party's candidate, arguing that fielding a leader with an RSS-BJP background could eventually lead to his return to the BJP.
"After being denied a ticket in 2023, I was promised that I would be fielded by the Congress from the same seat in the next elections, but have again been denied the ticket for the by-poll. My family and supporters are angry with this, I'm right now, not at all contemplating quitting Congress and returning to BJP," Nayak said in a Facebook Live video on Tuesday.
"My future decision on which way to go or stay away from by-poll and instead go on a pilgrimage, will be taken in the next few days, after consulting my people. But till I don't make any decision, I advise people to stay away from any misleading information about me," he added.
Notably, Nayak was absent from Congress candidate Ghanshyam Singh's nomination procession on Monday, and his name did not feature in the party's list of star campaigners for the July 30 bypoll.
Speculation over Nayak's possible ghar vapasi to the BJP intensified after photographs of BJP candidate Ashutosh Tiwari visiting his residence on Monday surfaced on social media. Nayak shared the photographs two days after posting similar pictures of Ghanshyam Singh visiting his home.
Following the BJP candidate's visit, senior Congress leaders, including state party president Jitu Patwari, met Nayak. The meetings were seen as a pre-emptive attempt to dissuade him from taking any drastic political decision.
