Bhopal: Over 200 workers and leaders from opposition parties, especially the Congress, have been joining the BJP in Madhya Pradesh each day since the beginning of this year, senior BJP leader and former home minister Narottam Mishra has told ThePrint.
“Over 14,700 people, most of whom are from the Congress, have joined the party since January this year alone,” added Mishra, who is convenor of the BJP’s ‘New Joining Toli’ in Madhya Pradesh.
On Thursday, several leaders from the Congress including former MP Deoraj Singh and former MLA from Nagod Yadvendra Singh joined the BJP. Apart from Congress, leaders from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) also switched.
आज कांग्रेस के कई प्रमुख नेताओ व सेकड़ो की संख्या में कांग्रेसजनों ने कांग्रेस को किया "चलो-चलो"…
भाजपा की रीति-नीति से प्रभावित होकर भाजपा की सदस्यता ग्रहण की….
जीतू पटवारी जी , देख लीजिये प्लॉट तेज गति से समतल हो रहा है…
कांग्रेस की जर्जर बिल्डिंग में से रोज़ ईंटे निकल… pic.twitter.com/7aHthBxxGU
— Narendra Saluja ( मोदी का परिवार ) (@NarendraSaluja) March 21, 2024
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, who was present during the induction Thursday, said, “Every day, the family of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is growing and the scale at which it is growing, it appears that other parties with have no one left with them.”
Narottam Mishra meanwhile said, “The BJP will have set a Guinness record after Holi.”
Among the joinees from Congress over the last few months, one of the biggest names is that of former Union minister Suresh Pachouri. This list includes Jabalpur mayor Jagat Bahadur Singh Annu, president of Congress’s legal cell Shashank Shekhar, retired IPS officer and former state information commissioner Sukhraj Singh. It also has six former MLAs, including Sanjay Shukla, who was the wealthiest Congress candidate in last year’s Madhya Pradesh assembly polls. He had lost to Kailash Vijayvargiya and last week switched over to the BJP along with Pachouri.
The most recent entry in the MP BJP has been that of Syed Jafar, a former confidant of Kamal Nath from his bastion of Chhindwara. Jafar along with another Congress leader, Manmohan Nagar, had approached the Supreme Court in 2021 stating that the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh — then under Shivraj Chouhan — had violated the rotation on reservation and delimitation for the panchayat elections. Since the panchayat election that followed, Sayed Jafar had fallen out of Kamal Nath’s favour after he made statements on the ongoing case, which was perceived to be against the party’s strategy.
According to BJP leaders, at least 9,600 members of the Congress who played crucial roles in the state unit and held key positions including that of mayor, sarpanch, councillor and corporator, have switched over.
Following the central BJP’s directive, under the ‘New Joining Toli’, sub-units have been created, one for each of the 57 districts in Madhya Pradesh. Apart from Mishra being state convenor, Sanjay Satyendra Pathak — who was the richest lawmaker to contest last year’s assembly polls — has been appointed co-convenor. Mishra had played an important role in ‘Operation Lotus’ to bring down the 15-month Kamal Nath-led Congress government in the state. Under the two, a three-member team has been formed in each district to establish contact with leaders from other parties who are willing to switch over.
The BJP’s ‘New Joining Toli’ is also focused on inducting influential people of society such as doctors, lawyers and retired judges. “Hundreds of doctors affiliated with Congress’s Doctor and Medical cell started by Kamal Nath have switched over and joined the BJP,” another BJP leader claimed.
Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar, while speaking to ThePrint, accused the BJP of playing “number games”.
“Just the way the BJP government is playing with numbers when it comes to the poor condition of the state’s finances, similarly they are building up numbers to show that 14,700 people have switched from the Congress,” he said.
Similarly, Dr Sudeep Pathak, who runs the state Congress’s Medical and Dental Cell said, “There are a bunch of dental practitioners who have switched over to the BJP, but that is only because one of them wanted to head the medical cell but his request was denied. Others who are seen standing with them largely include B.Pharm students. None of the prominent doctors who are part of our cell have quit the party.”
Also Read: ‘BJP ki kathni, karni mein antar hai’ — Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Pratap Singh on resigning from party
‘Vested interests or due to pressure from agencies’
Amid the MP Congress exodus, state party president Jitu Patwari issued a letter revoking the suspension of Congress leader Ashok Saini, who was suspended in the run-up to last year’s assembly elections.
When there was speculation that Kamal Nath would switch over to the BJP, the Congress’s state unit released a list of 62 leaders who have jumped ship, emphasising that only seven of them presently occupy prominent positions in the BJP. The seven leaders included Jyotiraditya Scindia, Govind Singh Rajput, Pradhuman Singh Tomar, Tulsi Silawat amongst others. The list was meant to convey a message to its sitting MLAs and workers — think twice before switching over.
Commenting on the exit of leaders such Sanjay Pathak and Congress veteran Suresh Pachouri, LoP Singhar, quoted earlier, attributed it to vested interests. “If the party has given senior positions to some leaders and yet they choose to quit the party, then it is simply their greed for more. Some others have joined owing to pressure from various agencies, and for others, financial arm-twisting by BJP leaders has compelled them to take this call.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)