Madhya Pradesh Polls: BJP Overtakes Congress on Nepotism

Bhopal: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its senior leaders, who leave no opportunity to attack the Congress for promoting ‘dynasty politics’ and curse the grand old party in almost every speech, have fallen prey to the same malaise in the allotment of tickets for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.

Aiming to retain power for the fourth time in a row, the saffron party has given tickets to over 40 candidates who belong to families of senior party leaders, altering its own stand on nepotism.

The BJP, which has been witnessing a rebellion within its ranks after dropping more than 35 sitting MLAs, including three ministers, from its candidates’ list, is now finding it extremely difficult to justify its stand on dynasty politics.

The party has fielded candidates for all the 230 Assembly constituencies and has shown its confidence in sons or relatives of senior party leaders, as part of its strategy to overcome 15 years of anti-incumbency, shows an analysis of the list of candidates issued in four instalments .

The list includes the names of the kin of big guns like BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur.

In the first list of 176 candidates, the BJP placed Mudit Shankar Shejwar from Sanchi in place of his father Gauri Shankar Shejwar, who was a cabinet minister in the Shivraj Chouhan government. Shejwar had urged the party leadership to replace him with his son as he was unwilling to fight the election and wanted to promote young blood.

Also Read: MP Election: As BJP and Congress Declare Candidates’ List, Problems Arise within BJP

The trend was followed by Vikram Singh, son of Minister of State, Harsh Singh, who managed to get the party ticket from Rampur Baghelan in Satna district. Harsh Singh has been keeping unwell and wanted to retire from active politics.

From Prithvipur Assembly seat of Tikamgarh district, BJP has chosen Abhay Yadav, son of former minister Akhand Pratap Singh, while in Khargapur the party has fielded Rahul Lodhi, nephew of Union minister Uma Bharti. Rahul had lost the seat in 2013 to Congress candidate Chanda Gaur with a margin of 5,677 votes.

Sudhir Yadav, son of Sagar Lok Sabha member Laxminarayan Yadav, has been given a ticket from Surkhi. Sudhir replaces sitting MLA Parul Sahu who had won the previous election by a thin margin of 141 votes. In Chandla (SC) in Chattarpur district, the party chose Rakesh Prajapati to replace his father RK Prajapati

In the second and third list, BJP continued to follow ‘parivarvad’ and chose Krishna Gaur, daughter-in-law of former chief minister and 10-time MLA Babulal Gaur, from Govindpura constituency. Interestingly, the party had finalised the name of state general secretary V. D. Sharma from the seat, but after Gaur threatened to contest the election as an independent candidate, the party bowed down under the pressure and finalised Krishna’s name. Babulal Gaur is a former Chief Minister and eight time MLA from that seat.

A more surprising decision came from Indore where the BJP, amid intense lobbying between supporters of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and party’s National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, acceded to the demand to field Akash Vijayvargiya from Indore 3 seat from where Usha Thakur had emerged victorious in 2013. The dejected Thakur was shifted to Vijayvargiya’s seat Mhow, where she is facing resentment from party workers for being an outsider. A similar situation arose in Ghattiya in Ujjain district where BJP has fielded Ajit Borasi, son of former Congress MP Premchand Guddu.

The party also chose Chaudhary Rakesh Chaturvedi from Bhind Assembly seat. Rakesh had joined BJP in 2013 and supported his brother Mukesh for a party ticket from Mehgaon in 2013. Mukesh had also won the election. However, his brother Mukesh has been dropped this time.

Meanwhile, the Congress who carries the bolt of dynasty politics has given only eight to ten tickets to the kin of senior leaders including former CM Digvijay Singh's son Jayvardhan Singh, brother Laxman Singh and nephew Priyavarat Singh. Congress has also given tickets to both the sons of former deputy CM Subash Yadav  - Arun and Sachin Yadav.