Madhya Pradesh Assembly election: How both BJP and Congress are trying to rein in the rebel candidates
Both the Congress and the BJP had their plans in place for containment of rebellions.
Rebel candidates in both the BJP and the Congress seem to have become a major factor in the upcoming Assembly elections.
After the last date for withdrawal of nominations on Wednesday, the BJP expelled 53 members for anti-party activities.
The Congress, too, took disciplinary action against a number of party members, expelling one rebel candidate, former MLA Xavier Meda, who is contesting from Jhabua.
Prominent among those who are still contesting as BJP rebels are former minister and MP Ramkrishna Kusmaria, former BJYM President Dheeraj Pateria in Jabalpur, former minister KL Agarwal, former Gwalior mayor Samiksha Gupta, former MLA Brahmanand Ratnakar, and former MLA Rajkumar Mev.
Another former MLA Sartaj Singh has already joined the Congress and is contesting against Speaker Sitasaran Sharma in Hoshangabad.
On the Congress front, Nitin Chaturvedi, son of veteran Congressman Satyavrat Chaturvedi is in the fray from Rajnagar, MLA Dinesh Ahirwar is contesting from Jatara and former Minister Pratap Singh Uike is contesting from Betul.
The Congress and the BJP may cry themselves hoarse claiming to be different from each other.
Each leader who has rebelled stated that he had worked hard for his party and that the party had instead chosen newcomers for tickets, insulting them and hence, they had no option but to contest in deference of public demand.
Both the Congress and the BJP had their plans in place for containment of rebellions.
Choppers were kept on stand-by to rush to rebels so they’d stand down.
In some cases, this was met with success, in others, it wasn't.
In the BJP, it was largely left to union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to speak to rebels and to get them to withdraw.
The persuasive minister managed to get former MLA Jitendra Daga and some local leaders to withdraw, but broadly everyone seemed to have a mind of their own.
On the Congress side, it was Digvijaya Singh who was asked to speak to rebels. Singh managed to get Sajid Ali and Nasir Islam, two Congress rebels to stand down, but could not get Nitin Chaturvedi to withdraw.
So, why do the rebellions look bigger compared to previous elections?
One reason could be that among the BJP leaders who have rebelled, many of them are seniors.
Sartaj Singh who switched to the Congress and RK Kusmaria have both been ministers in the state and Lok Sabha MPs multiple times.
Secondly, this is the first state election in which social media, especially WhatsApp, is all pervasive.
Videos of Sartaj Singh breaking down went viral across the state within hours and magnified the issue of rebellion that otherwise would not have looked that big in the absence of social media.
On the issue of the BJP failing to rein in rebels, political watchers point out that the absence of Arvind Menon who was earlier general secretary and an efficient communicator is being felt.
Also, the BJP being a cadre-based party and being more disciplined than the Congress seems something present only in theory.
Aspirations of BJP leaders are as real as those in the Congress and are now out there for all to see. The fact that the CM seems to be the only leader campaigning for the BJP in the polls puts a question mark on the theory that the BJP is a cadre based party.
(Courtesy of Mail Today)