Two Ex-mantris Quit BJP After Denied MP Ticket

Bhopal: In a jolt to the ruling BJP ahead of the year-end assembly polls, a former MP and an ex-MLA on Wednesday quit the party.

While the former MP from Balaghat Bodh Singh Bhagat joined Congress, ex-BJP MLA Mamata Meena resigned from the party.

However, she has not made it public about her political future.

Mr Singh joined Congress along with his supporters before state Congress chief Kamal Nath here.

Sources said that he was an aspirant for BJP ticket from Balaghat in the forthcoming assembly elections.

However, he lost hope of getting a BJP ticket from Balaghat when the local  BJP MLA Gouri Shankar Bisen was inducted in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the latest reshuffle in the state cabinet, held last month.

Mr Bisen, a former minister, was denied a berth in the state cabinet after BJP formed the government in the state in March 2020 following the fall of the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government.

This had created an impression in the BJP circle that he would be denied ticket in the year-end assembly polls.

However, his induction in the state ministry at the fag-end of the current tenure of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has revived hope of his re-nomination from the seat in the ensuing polls.

Similarly, Ms Meena was peeved at denial of ticket by the party in the Chachoda assembly seat in the state in the forthcoming polls.

Priyanka Meena has been fielded from the seat by BJP this time.

She was among 39 candidates who figured in the first list of candidates of BJP for Madhya Pradesh, released a couple of months ago.

In another development, Rajesh Patel, a BJP leader from Budhni, currently represented by chief minister Mr Chouhan, also joined Congress on Wednesday.

Mr Chouhan however took light of the development, saying that he has nothing to say on it.

BJP spokesman Bhagwandas Sabnani said that ticket aspirants in the party quit BJP after sensing that they might be denied ticket in the ensuing polls.

“Party hopping by leaders is a poll time phenomena”, another BJP leader said.