BJP engineers defections in MP Congress, has the upper hand

Chandrakant Naidu The Congress party’s troubled run in Madhya Pradesh continues with the BJP engineering defections in its ranks at regular intervals. The latest one on Thursday, of Rao Uday Pratap Singh, the Member of Parliament from Hoshangabad, exposed the failure of intra-party intelligence. Singh was preparing to leave the party and the Parliament for over a week. He resigned from the Lok Sabha on November 13 and quietly joined the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday. The Congress could do little to retain him, though they know he may have spoiled the party’s prospects in at least four Assembly segments in his Parliamentary constituency. [caption id=“attachment_123430” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Jyotiraditya Scindia: Dousing bushfires?[/caption] Party insiders say Singh, who had lately switched loyalties to Union Minister Kamal Nath, wanted to contest the Assembly election himself or wanted his wife to be fielded, but Kamal Nath’s rivals managed to scuttle his chances. There have been some defections from the ruling party too, but they have not bled it as badly as the ones that have affected the Congress. The BJP’s dirty tricks department has quite consistently timed its actions to pull the rug from under the Opposition’s feet at crucial stages. During the 2009 general elections the Congress candidate Rajkumar Patel was accused of having conceded the battle for the Vidisha seat to Sushma Swaraj by deliberately  missing the deadline to submit papers. He was subsequently removed from the party. In August this year, pathetic floor-management derailed the Congress’s plans to pin down the ruling party through a no-trust motion. The Congress was riding high after the ruling party had to sack veteran finance minister Raghavji over moral turpitude. But it failed to press home the advantage as the BJP induced the deputy leader of the CLP, Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi, to cross the floor just as the no-confidence motion was being read out. Curiously, the members involved in all the three incidents have at one point or the other belonged to the faction of the former Union Minister and PCC chief Suresh Pachauri, considered close to Sonia Gandhi. Pachauri’s support base in the state is the smallest among the satraps who control the party’s destiny. He is in the fray against Surendra Patwa the nephew of former chief minister Sunderlal Patwa at Bhojpur in a battle that could be decisive for his career. While quitting the party, Uday Pratap Singh accused party leaders of neglecting him. He said corruption in the distribution of party tickets forced him to take the painful decision. Singh was only echoing what the former PCC vice-president Manak Agrawal and party spokesperson Noori Khan had said earlier with a pointed reference to Pachauri. The AICC general secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh Mohan Prakash, Union Minister Harish Rawat and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi are engaged in dousing the bushfires. Senior party leader Sanjay Nirupam who is the state for campaigning also conceded that there were errors in the party nominations. While the party leadership is projecting the organisation’s righteous image, many MPs have got around the norms to wangle tickets for relatives. Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s protégé Satyavrat Chaturvedi and other Members of Parliament Arun Yadav and Shajapur MP Sajjan Singh now have their relatives in the line-up for the crucial battle. PCC chief Kantilal Bhuria’s son kept off the race but his niece has stayed as an independent. Another MP who found a devious way to get his son nominated is Premchand Guddu of Ujjain. Guddu manipulated his son Ajit Borasi’s nomination as official candidate from Alot (SC) though the official form B from the party was not issued in his name. He reportedly got the official candidate, Kamal Parmar, tricked out of the race. Pachauri was earlier accused of getting Sanjeev Saxena a ticket for one of the seats in Bhopal though he had lost the previous election by over 26,000 votes contesting as a BSP candidate. Saxena was placed second while the Congress candidate finished third with less than 14,000 votes. There is resentment over offering a ticket to the candidate who joined the Congress on the eve of nominations. The high command tried to neutralise the factional leaders by asking them to ensure victory of their nominees or face action. No one has been given a free hand and each is expected to get the numbers. The CLP leadership is finally is to be decided on the final tally the satraps muster. This has led to leaders eating into each other’s area of influence.