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    Jhabua bypoll Madhya Pradesh: Sulking BSP MLAs, independents emerging as threats

    Synopsis

    Jhabua has traditionally been a Congress seat, but the BJP has won it too, including in the 2018 elections.

    MP-CM-KAMAL-BCCL
    MP CM Kamal Nath (File Pic)
    NEW DELHI: A crucial upcoming by-poll, a BSP MLA crying foul over her absconding husband being booked for the murder of a Congress leader and the BJP smelling an opportunity in the “suffocation” being felt by some Congress MLAs — this somewhat is the current political situation in Madhya Pradesh.

    The Congress is eyeing the Jhabua seat, vacated by its BJP MLA after he won the Lok Sabha elections. “We will win Jhabua and the Congress tally will reach the half-way mark of 115. I am going to Jhabua to hold a big rally there on July 15,” Sajjan Singh Verma, a senior state minister and close aide of chief minister Kamal Nath, told ET.

    Jhabua has traditionally been a Congress seat, but the BJP has won it too, including in the 2018 elections.

    The Congress has 114 MLAs in the 230-member assembly, while the BJP now has 108.

    On Friday, former minister and BJP MLA Narottam Mishra created a flutter, when he said the monsoons were reaching Madhya Pradesh from Goa and the climate in MP could also change — a reference to the developments in the western state where 10 Congress MLAs have joined the BJP. "Daily, the Congress wakes up and counts its MLAs,” Mishra said.

    Countering the statement, Verma said the BJP MLA’s knowledge of climate was weak. “Monsoons in MP come from the Bay of Bengal. MP will get lot of rains and this government will last the full five years. 121 MLAs are solidly backing the government and we are safe,” Verma said.

    The BJP, however does smell a chance. There are two BSP MLAs, one Samajwadi Party member and four independents who back the government, and it expects that they could shift their loyalties.

    One of the BSP MLAs, Rama Bai, on Friday raised a banner of revolt against the government, over the police booking her husband Govind Singh for the murder of a Congress leader. Singh has been absconding for almost four months and the state government has declared a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head.

    “If I am not getting justice, how will a common person? This false case should be withdrawn,” the MLA said in the state assembly on Friday, on which BJP leaders Gopal Bhargava and Narottam Mishra asked the speaker to direct the government to intervene. The other BSP MLA, Sanjeev Singh Khushwaha, is backing Rama Bai’s demand.

    State BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal told ET that many Congress MLAs who owed their loyalty to Jyotiraditya Scindia “were feeling suffocated” in the government and there have been open verbal fights in Cabinet meetings. “There is danger over the government,” he said.


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