JOIN USSonrise in BJP heats up ticket distribution
Dynastic politics has become a major headache for the BJP to select candidates for the Madhya Pradesh election.
Under pressure from Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and former chief minister Babulal Gaur, the party has withheld candidates for nine seats in Indore and one in Bhopal.
Sumitra and Vijayvargiya are adamant on getting ticket to their respective sons on two of the Indore’s five urban seats while Gaur wants a ticket either to himself or his daughter-in-law from Govindpura constituency in Bhopal.
Polling in the state is slated on November 28 and the process for filing nomination began on November 2.
After failing to persuade the three top leaders to yield, the BJP leadership has left the decision regarding the ten seats on party president Amit Shah.
The Lok Sabha speaker is said to be unhappy that her son Mandar was not considered for any of the five urban seats in Indore district.
After calling on Sumitra, Narendra Singh Tomar, wtate BJP election management committee head and union minister, and party’s MP incharge Vinay Sahastrabuddhe denied that she was angry.
Kailash Vijayvargiya is lobbying for ticket to his son Akash from Indore-3 seat.
But the sitting MLA Ramesh Mendola, who is Vijayvargiya’s close confidant, is unwilling to sacrifice for the sake of his mentor.
The party is said to be ready to field junior Vijayvargiya from the Mhow seat, which his father had won in the 2013 Assembly election. But the senior Vijayvargiya considers the Indore-3 seat far safer for his son.
Govindpura seat in Bhopal is giving sleepless nights to the BJP.
Senior BJP leader Babulal Gaur has made a record by winning from the seat ten times since 1974. But the BJP seems to prefer state general secretary B D Sharma for the seat under RSS pressure over Gaur.
The octogenarian leader had stunned the party on Saturday by announcing that he might contest as independent if denied ticket from Govindpura.
However, he took a u-turn on Monday, saying he was loyal to the party and confident that the party would not let him down.
Gaur has also indicated that he is willing to withdraw his candidature if his daughter-in-law Krishna Gaur is fielded from the constituency.