Express News Service
BHOPAL: Political circles in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh are abuzz over something big likely to happen in the ruling BJP. Rumours have it that a new state party president could be appointed. The Wednesday late-night meeting of senior party leaders, including CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Singh Patel and national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya at CM’s residence in Bhopal followed by a tweet by Patel some hours later, has further fuelled the speculation.
Two days back, the two Union ministers along with the CM and Vijayvargiya (all four form part of the state party’s core group) met at the CM’s residence. Sources said the meeting assumed significance, particularly in the wake of rising discontent in the party cadre. Those airing their differences included former MLAs, Satyanarayan Sattan, Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat, Deepak Joshi (he joined Congress later), Harenderjeet Singh Babbu and Dhruv Pratap Singh, besides first-time MP from Guna, Dr KP Singh Yadav.
Union minister and powerful Lodhi caste leader Prahlad Singh Patel tweeted on Thursday. “I’m thankful to old friends and elders Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Narendra Singh Tomar and Kailash Vijayvargiya for helping me emerge from this difficult state of mind,” Patel tweeted.
The late-night meeting and Patel’s tweet mentioning the ‘purana prayog’ (old experiment) was enough to make political circles speculate about the possible change of guard in the state BJP organization, particularly as present state chief VD Sharma (who is also the first-time Khajuraho MP) has completed three years as party president in February this year and has not had the best of results, particularly in the July 2022 mayoral polls.
