New Delhi: Hindu mythology has it that Lord Shiva consumed poison to save the world. In the process, his throat turned blue, earning him the title of Neelkanth, or the Blue-Throated One. Now, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is imploring senior leaders in Madhya Pradesh to “emulate Neelkanth” by “selflessly” allowing the younger generation to take the reins so that the party can secure a victory in the November assembly polls.
However, not everyone is willing to drink the metaphorical poison of political marginalisation, ThePrint has learnt.
Last week, a delegation of 14 state and central BJP leaders travelled across MP to address the grievances of party veterans and to convince them to act for the benefit of the party. With the polls still six months away, the BJP is keen to stave off any potential rebellion during the ticket distribution process, and to avoid a repeat of the upheavals seen in Himachal Pradesh (where the party lost) and Karnataka, which votes on 10 May.
The core group of the MP BJP, including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, met Tuesday and discussed the feedback received by the delegates during their mission.
In MP, there are already signs of trouble brewing.
Last month, Yadvendra Singh Yadav, son of three-time BJP MLA Deshraj Singh Yadav, switched over to the Congress. According to local news reports, the Congress is mulling fielding Yadavendra in Gwalior’s Mungaoli constituency, where the incumbent MLA is the BJP’s Brajendra Singh Yadav, a Congress turncoat and Jyotiraditya Scindia loyalist.
In another blow, former Khargone MP Makhan Singh Solanki also joined the Congress, with former CM Digvijaya Singh reported to have played a crucial role in his defection. Welcoming him into the Congress fold, Digviyaya had jibed that the BJP had “never respected” Solanki despite his electoral wins.
The ‘poaching’ of BJP leaders by the Congress has raised concerns in the party ahead of the assembly polls, since ticket denials could lead to further exits.
Against this backdrop, the members of the delegation — including Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Faggan Singh Kulaste, BJP parliamentary board member Satyanarayan Jatiya, and national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya — were tasked to visit two to four districts each and to meet senior local leaders, gauge their mood, and convince them to not take the route of rebellion.
Despite their appeals, though, several former MLAs expressed their apprehensions about the potential electoral consequences of not honouring senior leaders.
‘Drank poison but never complained’
To hear the complaints of leaders and take pre-emptive steps against potential sabotage, the 14-member BJP committee travelled across MP districts from 8-16 April, and gave their feedback to BJP’ national joint general secretary (organisation) Shiv Prakash, who is also the zonal in-charge of MP, this Monday.
The findings of the delegates were then taken up for discussion by the core group of the MP BJP Tuesday.
“The main aim of this visit was to meet former MLAs and senior party leaders, listen to their concerns, apprise them of the party’s vision, and to ask them to ensure that the BJP returns to power in MP,” delegate Satyanarayan Jatiya, an ex-Union minister and former seven-time MP from Ujjain, told ThePrint.
During his visit, Jatiya travelled across Mandsaur and Ratlam districts, where he is said to have emphasised that the BJP’s policy since 2019 has been to bring the younger generation to the forefront, and to consider “winnability” as an important criterion for tickets other than age and experience.
Party sources claimed that Jatiya asked leaders to cooperate or else run the risk of becoming “redundant like the Congress”.
Meanwhile, Narendra Singh Tomar, addressing senior leaders in Indore and Bhopal, reportedly exhorted them to be like Neelkanth, who “drank poison but never complained”.
He is said to have stressed that not every worker can hold a position of power and that the party needs leaders who are willing to make sacrifices, akin to Neelkanth, for the greater good.
Complaints of ‘alienation’, bureaucracy woes
A former minister who visited two districts as part of the BJP delegation told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity that the most frequent complaints he heard from former MLAS were over the “alienation” of senior leaders and about the “bureaucracy running the government”.
A former BJP MLA from Khargone echoed this when describing a meeting he attended with delegate Prabhat Jha, a former state BJP president. This meeting, he said, included about 35 leaders from Khargone, Khandwa, and Burhanpur districts.
“Since the promotion of younger leaders in 2019, senior leaders who had worked for the party for three or four decades have been ignored and left without any positions in the districts,” the former MLA said. “If our own government considers senior workers as a liability, why should senior leaders work for the party?”
Many leaders also have a grouse against the bureaucracy, the former MLA claimed.
“Bureaucrats are running the government. Furthermore, they are not willing to listen to the advice of senior leaders,” he alleged.
Another former MLA from Khargone, however, said that he had advised Jha that younger faces should indeed be given a chance.
“Leaders who have already won four or five times should not be given a ticket. New candidates should be fielded in those constituencies that have been a senior leader’s bastion for 30 years,” he said.
When asked about the proceedings of the meeting with Jha, Khargone district BJP president Rajendra Rathore claimed that there was no dissension within the ranks, but hinted that ruffled feathers were inevitable.
“In the one-to-one meeting, former MLAs and senior leaders gave various suggestions to Prabhat Jha. There is no negativity about the government’s work, but it is true that neither the party nor the government can satisfy every worker. Generational change has to happen in the party,” Rathore said. “We will win the assembly elections.”
Rumblings of discontent
Another BJP leader who was part of the delegation to contain rebellion in MP told ThePrint that the team went with two objectives.
“The first was to convince elder party leaders to make way for younger candidates and to convince them not to create a fuss. The second objective was to engage those leaders who are dissatisfied with the party and government and are ready to switch parties,” he said.
According to him, it was hoped that a heart-to-heart would help salve wounds and get leaders to cooperate.
“Many times, a simple visit and hearing the concerns of senior leaders can address many problems. Sometimes, a simple ego massage of the workers does wonders during election time,” he said.
“In many places, we have visited the homes of former MLAs, had lunch with family members, and attended family functions, which will create positivity among senior leaders and minimise their anger,” he added.
However, there are still rumblings of discontent.
Several party leaders are said to be willing to explore their options in case the BJP denies them a ticket. These include former state finance minister Jayant Malaiya and his son Siddharth, former state minister Deepak Joshi, and Mudit Shejwar, the son of former forest minister Dr Gauri Shankar Shejwar.
When asked about his stance, Joshi, the son of late former CM Kailash Joshi, told ThePrint that he might have to make a “major political decision” after the Karnataka elections.
“If the party doesn’t find me competent enough for being assigned something important in the state in the coming weeks, then I will take major political decisions after the Karnataka polls are over,” he said.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)