BHOPAL: The fact that families loyal to the BJP for decades are disenchanted with the saffron party is distinctly manifesting itself ahead of the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh.
In the latest setback, two-time ex-MLA Girija Shankar Sharma quit the BJP on Friday.
He is the fourth BJP leader to quit the ruling BJP in the past five months.
It's not lost on political observers that two sons of the powerful Brahmin Sharma family of Narmadapuram district had won the Hoshangabad assembly seat (formerly Itarsi seat) seven consecutive times between 1990 and 2018, thus making it a bastion of the saffron party for 33 years.
Sitting MLA and ex-Vidhan Sabha speaker Dr Sitasaran Sharma held the seat five times (1990, 1993, 1998, 2013 and 2018). Before him, his elder brother held sway here between 2003 and 2008.
The disregard of the party's top leaders towards veterans and long-time workers was cited as the reason by Girija Shankar Sharma for quitting the party. He vowed that he will ensure that BJP will not retain the seat in the forthcoming polls. He said that BJP coming back to power in the state is not in the state's larger interest.
Girija Shankar Sharma's resignation from the primary membership of the BJP took place at a time when there was buzz that the BJP was likely to deny a ticket to anyone from the Sharma family to contest from the Hoshangabad seat for the first time in 33 years.
Party insiders claimed that the family is disappointed over the younger sibling and ex-assembly speaker Dr Sitasaran Sharma not being made a minister in the recent cabinet rejig.
The former MLA, who has twice been the chairman of the local municipality in the Narmadapuram town and also former district BJP president, while admitting that he has recently met the state Congress chief Kamal Nath and Congress Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh once, added that the talks haven't yet matured to the level of him joining the main opposition party.
"All I can say is that I'll work for the victory of the best opposition candidate. But it remains to be seen whether that will be done by being inside the Congress or outside it. It's still a month and a half before polls are announced, whether I'll join the Congress, the AAP or any other opposition party will be decided later," he maintained.
The Hoshangabad seat is one of the four seats of Narmadapuram district (earlier named Hoshangabad district). All four seats were won by the BJP in 2018.
In 2018 there was also a rebellion within the BJP ranks in the central MP district, as multiple times former MLA and MP and ex-union and state minister Sartaj Singh, upset over the denial of ticket by BJP, had joined the Congress and contested against the sitting BJP MLA and the then outgoing Vidhan Sabha speaker Dr Sitasaran Sharma from Hoshangabad seat, but lost by over 15,000 votes. Singh, however, returned to the BJP a few years later.
Importantly, the elder Sharma's resignation from the BJP happened just a day after sitting BJP MLA from Kolaras seat of Shivpuri district Virendra Raghuvanshi quit the BJP, accusing Jyotiraditya Scindia loyalist leaders and ministers of corruption and "ill-treatment" of elder leaders in the party. Raghuvanshi is likely to join the Congress in Bhopal on Saturday.
Other leaders to quit the BJP in last five months
On March 22, Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav, the elder son of three times former BJP MLA Late Rao Deshraj Singh Yadav, quit the party to join the Congress. He is likely to be fielded by the Congress from his father's old seat Mungaoli in the Ashok Nagar district of Gwalior-Chambal region. In April, former BJP MP from Khargone-ST seat of west MP, Makhansingh Solanki quit the BJP and joined the Congress. His nephew Sumer Singh Solanki is the first-time BJP MP in the Rajya Sabha. In May, former CM Late Kailash Joshi's ex-Madhya Pradesh minister son Deepak Joshi ended his decades-long association with the BJP to join the Congress. He is keen on contesting against CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan from the latter's political pocket-borough Budhni in central MP's Sehore district.
