BJP\'s Union Ministers, MLAs From Other States to Blitz Madhya Pradesh
Bhopal: BJP is all set to carpet bomb the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh with Union ministers and ministers and MLAs of the party from other states ahead of the year-end assembly elections.
Madhya Pradesh may see the biggest ever deployment of BJP leaders from other states including Union ministers and senior ministers and MLAs to ensure effective campaigning by mobilising local leaders and workers and providing necessary logistics, a senior BJP leader in know of the matter told this newspaper on Friday.
The party plans to assign one Union minister or a senior minister from another BJP-ruled state to supervise the electioneering in six-seven assembly constituencies.
At least a couple of MLAs from other states will be deployed in each assembly constituency to assist them in their task, the BJP functionary said, requesting not to be quoted.
Several ministers and MLAs from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have already chosen for the purpose, he added.
Nine ministers and one MLA from Uttar Pradesh have already taken charge of the regions assigned to them.
Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Brijesh Pathak has been given charge of Bhopal district, while his ministerial colleague Swatantra Dev Singh has taken charge of Satna district.
Other UP ministers, Daya Shankar Singh, Babyrani Maurya, Dinesh Pratap Singh, Daya Shankar Mishra, Kapil Dev Agrawal, Anil Rajbhar and G P S Rathore have been given charge of the districts of Balaghat, Gwalior, Raisen, Datia, Damoh, Sibni and Bhopal block respectively.
Uttar Pradesh MLA Pankaj Singh has been given charge of Vidisha district.
Each district comprises six-seven assembly constituencies.
“The density of deployment of party leaders from other states in Madhya Pradesh in this poll is much more than that of the previous assembly elections”, he said.
Sources said that the party’s strategy to field seven MPs including three Union ministers in the ensuing assembly elections was to wrest the ‘difficult’ seats from the Opposition parties in this poll.
The seats in which the seven MPs of the party were fielded were lost to the Opposition Congress by BJP by no less than 16,000 votes in the last elections, he added.
“All the seven MPs including the three Union ministers were alerted in advance about the party’s plan to field them in the polls”, another senior BJP leader disclosed.
The party heavyweights have influences in different regions such as Mahakoshal, Chambal, Bundelkhand, Vindhya and Madhyanchal and hence they may help the party win in their periphery seats besides securing their own seats, sources said.
BJP had lost 121 out of 230 assembly seats in the state in the last assembly elections.
The party has announced candidates for 79 seats in three phases so far.
Of them, the party had lost in 76 assembly seats in the last assembly elections.
