Madhya Pradesh Political Punch: Spying On Party Leader, Ministers Anxious, Internal Fight & More
· Free Press Journal
Packing up house wares
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A senior politician of the Congress and former chief minister of MP packed up his house wares and moved out of Delhi. Because of his Rajya Sabha membership, he had a government house in the national capital. After the end of his tenure as an RS member, he packed up his household goods and settled in Bhopal, resolving to remain in the state. The party high command has stopped giving him importance in Delhi. In this situation, he wants to keep away from national politics. The leader has supporters in every village across the state. So, he wants to rebrand himself, staying in Madhya Pradesh. These days, he prepares for a Yatra, through which he wants to reinvent himself in politics rather than targeting the BJP. A discussion about it continues. He has also begun to change his profile. He recently wrote an article in a newspaper on education. It indicates his attempt to rebrand his image.
Ministers anxious
The change of department of a minister has scared his colleagues in the state cabinet. A complaint, by a senior functionary of the RSS to a central leader of the party, led to the minister s ouster from the cabinet. Afterwards, fear of losing ministerial berths haunts many ministers. A minister has told his staffers that they keep away from doing anything that may impact his political career. People in the corridors of power say the minister and his staffers make money through underhand dealings. Thus, he advised his staffers to work with caution. The minister has dreams and often courts controversies. Against this backdrop, he avoids doing anything that may cause trouble for him.
Spying on party leader
The state BJP unit and the government spy on their leader. In the assembly by-election, the government and the party snoop on him through a team. They keep tabs on who he meets and who he hangs out with. The purpose is to watch whether he hatches a conspiracy against the party. The team prepares a report daily on the politician. Whenever he addresses a public meeting, the party takes feedback on what kind of language he uses. The BJP fears lest the politician should shock the party on the day of polling. The leader has a big team in the constituency that goes to polls in a few days. The party watches the leaders close to him. The team also gathers information about his family. But people in the constituency say spying on the leader hardly worries him. He openly pours out his feelings. Even during the attempt to topple the Congress government, the politician used normal phone calls to discuss everything.
Internal fight
The opposition has launched a stir against the government, and the Congress plunged into action, but the internal conflict in the party refuses to die down. After the detention of Rahul Gandhi in Delhi, when the legislators of the party in the state staged a sit-in outside the chief minister s office, a few of them stealthily went away through the backdoor. These senior leaders sit in the front row in the House. Before the demonstration, a few leaders of the party had a difference of opinion. They said it would be of no use to stage such a sit-in. But the party s central leadership issued a notice that the leaders should stage protests across the country, but the senior leaders in Madhya Pradesh kept away from it. Those who demonstrated had no idea about how to conclude the protest. Thus, after a few hours of demonstration, they left the place of protest one after another.
Left alone
The position of the head of the BJP s state unit holds importance. When the head of the organisation holds the position of legislator, the situation changes. He gets enough importance as head of the party in the state, but the senior leaders barely give him enough value in the House. Such an incident recently took place. When opposition created a din in the House over the UCC Bill and the legislators from the ruling party failed to speak, the most important ministers of the cabinet spoke to the senior legislators of the party about how to handle the situation. The senior legislators went to the Speaker to discuss the issue. During the party legislators move to discuss the matter with the Speaker, nobody paid any heed to the party head. He remained seated in his chair for a long time. He then chatted with the junior legislators. In the process of making a strategy to counter the opposition, nobody realised that they had left the party president alone in the House.
Mantri Chalisa
A cabinet minister from the Bundelkhand region has innovated a way to turn government welfare schemes into political goodwill. Beneficiaries of government schemes in his constituency get information through local party functionaries that, after receiving the financial and other aids, they must felicitate the minister at public functions with a shawl and a Shreefal (coconut) in the presence of local residents. At such functions, the minister presents each beneficiary with a pocket-sized Hanuman Chalisa. Those familiar with the practice say that the minister asks the beneficiaries to take an oath on the Bible since they have received the benefits because of him"; they should vote for him in the next election. The practice has left many beneficiaries self-conscious, as they know the government funds the schemes for those belonging to certain categories. Thus, the beneficiaries of such schemes know that they do not survive on anyone's doles. A few people wish to raise their voices against the minister, who defected from his original political outfit to the ruling dispensation and got a cabinet berth. Because he enjoys considerable political clout, many politicians avoid confronting him.
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