Thursday remained quite crucial for 2023 Assembly poll preparations of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as core group leaders from both the states met the national office bearers separately in New Delhi, reportedly in presence of a senior RSS functionary.
BJP national president J.P. Nadda and organizing general secretary B.L. Santosh took both the meetings in presence of RSS functionary Arun Kumar who coordinates between the Sangh and the BJP, sources said.
Though there were no official statements about the meeting and the attending leaders did not talk to the media at all, there are speculations that more focus on SC-ST seats, issues of coordination between organization and the government in Madhya Pradesh, likely changes in Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet to make it more representative ahead of the polls and general strategy for the polls were among prominent points of discussion. Also, a report on recent communal riots in Khargone was reportedly sought from the state leaders.
In the case of Chhattisgarh, the discussion is said to have focused on the apparent poor performance of the state unit in dealing with the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government. The leaders were reportedly taken to task and changes in functioning strategy and steps to be taken as regards the polls were reportedly discussed.
The situation of BJP is quite different in the two neighbouring states that will go to polls around November 2023. While the party managed to form a government in Madhya Pradesh in March 2020 despite a slim loss in 2018 polls and consolidated it by winning enough seats during bypolls in November 2020, in Chhattisgarh the fortunes of the party have only dwindled since a thumping loss in 2018. BJP has just 15 members in the 90-member Assembly at present and lost four by-elections back to back.
The BJP, with a strong government and having shown good performance in the recently concluded Assembly polls to five states, would want to retain the government in Madhya Pradesh and come back to power in Chhattisgarh. Although the polls are still one-and-a-half years away, the party has started to take steps to consolidate its position. Especially in Madhya Pradesh, prime minister Narendra Modi and union home minister Amit Shah – the top two leaders of the party – have started giving particular focus. Shah has already visited the state twice in the past six months and the PM has visited once and is likely to visit again soon to dedicate the redeveloped Mahakal corridor in Ujjain – a project that is likely to be portrayed as a big thing in the run up to elections.
In the Madhya Pradesh meeting, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, party state president Vishnu Dutt Sharma, in-charge P. Muralidhar Rao, state BJP organizing general secretary Hitanand Sharma, Union minister Narendra Tomar, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and state home minister Narottam Mishra were present. However, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is looked upon as a key player in state politics, was not present.
In the Chhattisgarh meeting, ex-CM Raman Singh, state president Vishnudev Sai, in-charge D. Purandeswari, state organizing general secretary Pawan Sai and leader of opposition Dharamlal Kaushik were among those present.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel took a jibe at the state leadership, saying that he did not know anything about the Delhi meeting as it is internal matter of the BJP, but going by different statements of Purandeswari, it was clear that the state leaders had lost the confidence of national leadership as well as people of the state.
In MP, Congress spokesman Narendra Saluja said that the attitude of the state core group members after the meeting indicated that everyone was very tense and that they had been taken to task by the national office bearers. He said that according to reports, the organization and the government representatives complained against each other during the meeting and internal strife has reached a peak. He also pointed out the absence of Scindia from the meeting and the fact that while Chouhan and V.D. Sharma had gone together for the meeting, they returned separately. “Big changes are likely and we may see implementation of the Gujarat model here too soon,” Saluja said, pointing out at the total change in cabinet including chief minister in Gujarat in September 2021.