BHOPAL: The controversy over CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s comments on the Scindia family had barely died down when, on Tuesday, two BJP leaders launched an acerbic attack on him. Hitesh Bajpai, chairperson of MP State Civil Supplies Corporation came out with a statement saying that Chouhan had helped Jyotiraditya Scindia win the MP Cricket Association (MPCA) elections.
Talking to Free Press, Bajpai said what he meant was that Chouhan helped everyone and that he had great reverence for the Scindia family. Earlier, Bajpai had said that the Scindias were traitors to the country, but before Independence.
Reacting to Bajpai’s statement, the Congress said it had exposed the frustration of the BJP. Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said the fact that a person enjoying the status of minister of state was claiming that the CM had engineered the defeat of Kailash Vijayvargiya in the MPCA elections showed the intensity of the factional infighting within the BJP. Chaturvedi said Scindia had won because he had got more votes, and not because he was helped by someone.
The BJP spokespersons, as always, have come out with the explanation that what Bajpai said was his ‘personal opinion’, which had nothing to do with the party.
Minister’s son says govt in deep slumber
Abhishek Bhargava, son of panchayats and rural development minister Gopal Bhargava and state vice-president of BJYM has also fired a salvo at his own party’s government. In a post on the social media he said women were so bitterly opposed to liquor shops that they were staging noisy demonstrations but the government was in a deep slumber like Kumbhakaran.
He said while the state government was sensitive to even small issues, it was surprising to find it ignoring these mega demonstrations. “I personally appeal to the CM to impose prohibition in the state,” he said.
Addressing the CM, he went on to say, “It is baffling that you are not taking any decision in the matter even when women consider you a member of their family.” Bhargava said illegal liquor vends had sprouted at almost every place in the state with the collusion of the administration. He said he would constitute anti-liquor squad in his home town Gadhakota and launch an agitation against liquor shops.
Gopal Bhargava and BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal dismissed Bhargava’s post as his ‘personal opinion’. After the post kicked up a furore, the junior Bhargava came out with an explanation. He wrote that his objective was not to target any individual but to draw attention to a social evil. He also said if his post had hurt anyone, he was ready to apologise.
