Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Ahead of state Assembly elections last year, a video showing BJP worker Pravesh Shukla peeing on a tribal Dashmat Rawat in Sidhi district had gone viral in July 2023. And that was said to have sealed the fate of BJP leader Kedarnath Shukla.
The three-time MLA from a constituency in Sidhi district was dropped from BJP's list of nominees for Assembly election in November last year presumably because Pravesh was his supporter. The incident was all but forgotten till the viral video resurfaced on social media a few days ago, albeit with a different narrative and a different agenda.
Former BJP MP and now Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) candidate Ajay Pratap Singh has alleged that BJP nominee Rajesh Mishra was behind uploading the video last year. He is now appealing to Brahmins, who have a sizeable presence in Sidhi, to teach a lesson to Mishra for using the video to destroy the political career of veteran BJP politician and a well-known Brahmin leader Kedarnath Shukla.
"The video was leaked from house of Mishra. He conspired to ruin the political career of a seasoned and popular Brahmin leader like Kedarnath Shukla. Can people back a politician who backstabbed his own party colleague? Such a person should be ousted from politics and Brahmin community,” the GGP candidate, who recently quit BJP over ticket denial; is telling voters in Brahmin-dominated parts of the constituency.
"It was a two-year-old video. So why was it leaked by Rajesh Mishra on the eve of Assembly polls? It was done just to destroy Shukla’s political career," Singh said. After the video had originally surfaced, the then chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan invited the victim Dashmat Rawat to his official residence in Bhopal, announced monetary compensation and even washed his feet.
Pravesh Shukla was arrested and a portion of his house was demolished. Riti Pathak was fielded in place of Shukla and she won the polls in a three-cornered contest also featuring Kedarnath Shukla contesting as an independent candidate.
BJP's new face Rajesh Mishra is taking on Congress working committee member and ex-MP minister Kamleshwar Patel in Sidhi. Former BJP MP Ajay Pratap Singh has made the contest triangular by fighting on GGP ticket. Of the 20.21 lakh voters in the constituency, 4 lakh are Brahmins. Sidhi will vote to elect its Lok Sabha member on April 17.
