In a jolt to the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh barely three months before the state assembly polls, party’s MLA Virendra Raghuvanshi resigned on Thursday citing indifference of the party towards him and the attitude of the leaders, who came to BJP from the Congress along with Jyotiraditya Scindia, who he said, were creating rift in the saffron party.
Raghuvanshi, the sitting MLA from Kolaras constituency in the Shivpuri district, said he had repeatedly informed Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the senior BJP leadership that he was ‘pained’ at the party’s indifferent attitude towards him. He, however, lamented that no one heeded to his representations.
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He sent his resignation letter from the party’s primary membership to MP BJP Chief Vishnu Dutt Sharma.
The disgruntled MLA pointed out that dedicated BJP workers like him were being ignored in the Gwalior-Chambal region, which includes the Shivpuri district.
He questioned Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s alleged silence on non-waiver of farmers’ loans in MP after the BJP regained power whereas he used to target the Congress on the same issue.
Raghuvanshi predicted that all the leaders who came into the BJP from the Congress would prove fatal for the BJP as they would ‘drown’ the saffron party in the assembly polls due in November this year.
About half-a-dozen loyalists of Jyotiraditya Scindia, who had gone with him from the BJP to the Congress, have already left the BJP and rejoined the Congress in the past few months.
Virendra Raghuvanshi, nonetheless, is the first sitting BJP MLA and a sincere BJP leader who has quit the ruling party alleging that he has been mistreated.
He also alleged corruption, saying corrupt officials were being posted in his region who, he said, were creating hindrances in all development works.